Harry Potter Unbound: Blue Blood
by HDTaggart
Summary: Harry Potter has been the outcast of Slytherin for three years. Starting with Occlumency practice and the beginning of the Triwizard Tournament, Harry discovers hidden talents and allies, but also many enemies. The tournament is the beginning of drastic change in Harry that will alter the wizarding world. Slytherin!Harry, Gray!Harry, Ravenclaw!Hermione
1. Back to Hogwarts

**Back to Hogwarts**

_Harry could not move his head. _

_He was in a semi-lit room. The main source of light seemed to be candles placed in a cycle around him. The furniture and the decoration was in the style of Victorian England. It was rather lavish. _

_He felt like a spectator in a movie. It seemed as if he was in a small baby-like body. Tiny fingers and arms where stretched out where his normal arms should have been. _

_The view focused on a man cowering before him. _

"_Master, your only faithful servants are ready to die for you. Please forgive my fathers absence. The Minister is meeting with him right now." the cowering figure proclaimed._

"_I will be merciful this time. He has done well in placing himself in such a good position in the time I was away. Now it is only for him to prove that he did this not out of weakness." a high pitched voice said. It seemed to originate with Harry. It continued, "I am pleased with your plans. Are they all ready?"_

Harry awoke sweating. Was this real or just a dream? It seemed so real. He had never had a dream this vivid.

Harry shook his head. He would think about this later, on the train maybe. For now he had to get ready. Back to Hogwarts!

**HPU**

After the eight hour train ride, Harry was glad to get tho the Great Hall and join everyone in the start of the year traditions. First the sorting and then the feast. Harry had only had a sandwich on the train. This left him starving and ready for the meal.

Most of the name of the first years did not ring a bell for Harry. As a fourth year, he would have little contact with any of them, so he paid a little less attention to the names than in years past. At first he scanned the head table for any new professor. At the very end of the table, right next to the back door, sat a man whose most distinctive feature was a large magical eye. It seemed to twirl about constantly. His clothing was bulging, hiding who know what. Harry had the impression that the man was constantly expecting death around the corner.

The sorting reminded him of his first year. He had been, unexpectedly sorted to Slytherin. He had pleaded with the hat to let him go to 'the house of the brave.' The hat had not given in, however, he had seen that Harry was plenty brave, but had nevertheless placed him into Slytherin. His parting thoughts to Harry had been, _'__In Gryffindor you would do great things, in Slytherin you will change the world.'_

Of changing the world Harry had seen very little the last three years. Sure, the number of times Harry had faced some deadly peril could be termed: 'above average,' but the number of people it had affected was rather limited.

"Dennis Creevey." Professor McGonagall announced, ripping Harry out of his thoughts.

The person the name referred to was physically almost identical to Colin Creevey, so he must be the brother of the annoying Gryffindor. Harry worried that little Dennis would be as obnoxious as his older brother. In Colin's first year, Harry had to constantly be on the look out for Creevey's camera. Only last year had Creevey really become integrated in Gryffindor. That was when the Muggle-born had started to understand that the house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin meant that he could not worship Harry. The constant terror of the dementors had maybe also toned Creevey down.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat proclaimed.

Yes, those dementors last year, they had been the last of a series of monsters he had encountered. So far. First year, it had been a troll and a possessed professor. Second year, it was the great basilisk. Then last year the aforementioned dementors as well as a werewolf and an escaped prisoner. The last two turned out to be new friends for him, but that was not something he knew at the time of the encounter.

"Isolde Greengrass." McGonagall announced a little later.

'Ah, Daphne Greengrass's younger sister,' Harry thought to himself. She was blond like Daphne and Astoria, but the hair was cut short, just above the shoulders, not long down the back like they had. Externally, she resembled her older sisters in every way. She seemed more subdued then Astoria, but not as 'icy' as the Ice Queen.

The hat took no time at all to decide: "SLYTHERIN!"

Slytherin.

Harry had been in Slytherin now for three full years. Yet, he was no closer of making an in house friend then on the day he was sorted.

Come to think of it, he didn't really have any friends at all.

When he had faced the monsters he had usually done it alone. There were some acquaintances that were almost friends, but that was it.

Harry's role of outcast within Slytherin left him no room to make friends. His position within Slytherin was absolute. While in the dungeon, no one would talk to him. This was an actual improvement from the first year. Initially the snakes had been openly hostile to him, this was partially due to his mothers Muggle-born status. But that was not the main reason. Tracy Davis was also a half blood, but her friendship with Daphne Greengrass eased her into Slytherin.

The main reason Harry was an outcast, was that Draco Malfoy had decided that Harry was the main threat to Malfoy's supreme rule over their year. His influence spread far and wide in the Dungeon, so Harry was avoided like the plague by his housemates.

Harry's role as star Seeker had mellowed out most of the house, but had only served to increase the hatred Malfoy had for him. Malfoy's threats kept the snakes away from Harry. The only time he was popular was when Harry caught the Snitch. While he was flying over the Quidditch pitch, he was free.

Outside the house he also had no chance of making friends. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff did not interact with Slytherin on principle. There was no way that he could befriend one of them.

The situation with Ravenclaw was a bit more complicated. The relationship between Slytherin and Ravenclaw were always shaky, but of the three other houses, Ravenclaw was the one closest to Slytherin. This led Ravenclaws to usually defer to the internal politicking of Slytherin when forming opinions of individual Slytherins. This led Ravenclaw to also reject Harry.

After the troll incident, Hermione Granger and he had hung out together several times. But, Granger's Ravenclaw housemates had not allowed this. Granger was esteemed in the house of the learned, mainly because of her intellectual powers. Her position as smartest witch of the year allowed at least the Ravenclaws to overlook her Muggle heritage. This status, however, did not allow her to befriend a very unpopular half-blood Slytherin. If Granger continued to spend time with Harry, she was exposed to relentless harassment by her house. Harry was surprised how vicious they could be to her.

And so the two had agreed upon a secret signal to arrange hidden encounters, but discontinued regular meetings. Harry was sad that he could not become friends with Granger, but he wanted the Muggle-born to enjoy her time at Hogwarts, even if he had not really enjoyed much besides Quidditch.

"Mafalda Weasley," was the final name announced.

Another Weasley! It could not be a sister of Ginny. She was well known to be the only girl in the family. A cousin maybe. Harry was interested in the Weasleys mainly because he had rescued Ginny from a gigantic basilisk in his second year. But this was a forgone conclusion. ALL Weasleys go to Gryffindor. Harry was a little sad, he would never get to know them. There was just too big of a divide between Gryffindor and Slytherin. And the Weasleys were as Gryffindor as one could be. Arthur and Molly had been very grateful to him, but the Weasley children, when in Hogwarts, avoided getting too near any Slytherin. After the initial thanks to him, things had quickly gotten back to normal.

Harry's main interactions with the Weasleys had been on the Quidditch field. The twins were excellent Beaters. Ginny had become the new Gryffindor Seeker. She had given Harry quite a hard game last year. The Weasley influence on the Gryffindor team was undeniable. He would not be surprised if Ron would also be on the team at some point. Harry would love to play some pick up Quidditch with them sometime. Maybe he could befriend these three at least, on those grounds.

"SLYTHERIN!" exclaimed the hat, tearing Harry from his Quidditch musings.

The hall was silent. Not a single hair twitched. Harry looked over to the Gryffindor table.

The Weasleys were wide eyed.

The twins smirked despite their wide eyes. Harry had been the target of their pranks in the past, before he had saved Ginny. Were they planing to harass his new house mate, or did they think they have a new spy to help them plot against the House of Slytherin new unspeakable terror? Only time would tell.

Ron was red as a tomato. He had a frown on his face. Harry did not see anything good come out of this.

Ginny frowned. But it was not a malicious frown as with her brother. Rather she seemed sad at the lost opportunity to get to know her cousin better.

Mafalda looked at the Slytherin table. Her face betrayed no emotions, her mouth was sealed so tight, it was just a single line. Her red hair partially hid her eyes. Harry was sure she was absolutely terrified. She took a tentative step towards the table. Every face on Gryffindor and Hufflepuff showed concern or sorrow.

As she came close to the table, it became apparent that no one made room for her on the benches. It reminded Harry awfully like his own sorting three years ago. He was painfully aware how she had to feel. He had had the same reception into this house.

As Mafalda approached midway, close to where he sat, Harry had enough. She was just a first year! Harry waved at her invitingly. There was ample room around him. Harry was not part of any of the factions of the house, so he had to sit by himself.

As all the eyes were still on her, she hardly changed her poker face, but a faint smile could be detected if one really paid attention.

Mafalda sat down next to Harry. "Thanks." she peeped quietly.

Harry could also see thankful expressions in the faces of Ginny and the twins.

The Headmaster clapped his hands. "What joy, what joy. We are almost at the most important part of the night, the food.

"… But before that, I have to introduce you to our new DADA teacher. I nearly forgot. I was able to fill the spot with an old friend of mine Mr. Alastor Moody. He is very qualified, he was Head Auror for decades and served with distinction during the last war with Voldemort. …

"But now children, to the food!" He snapped with his right hand, and the five tables were filled with an opulent feast of heavy English cuisine. There was some Scottish flavors this year too though, such as haggis. "To the food, lets begin!"

And everyone did just that.

Harry tried to smile at Mafalda encouragingly, "I am Harry Potter. If you need any help, I will do the best I can to be there for you. So, who is Mafalda Weasley?"

"I am a somewhat estranged member of the Weasley clan. My father is a stock broker in the Muggle world. Dad kind of abandoned the magical world, after he met my mother, a Muggle. He is a squib. I was born a witch anyway, and so now I am here." She freely shared, but quietly enough that only the two of them could hear it.

"Just as a warning, I would keep this information guarded. I have a Muggle-born mother and this has been a problem for me in this house. If some purebloods here discover that you're the daughter of a squib and a Muggle, you will have real trouble," Harry warned her. "But don't worry too much, since you are a Weasley, no one will suspect it."

**HPU**

After everyone appeared to be finished, the Headmaster stood up, snapped his fingers to disappear the dessert, and waited for everyone to be quiet.

Since the dessert disappeared, all students quickly quieted down.

"Now, children, I have to remind you that the Forbidden Forest is forbidden. Also our esteemed caretaker Argus Filch has updated the banned items list to now include one hundred and twenty nine items. I am at loss to how to remember one hundred and twenty nine items," some students giggled. "If you desire to attempt the feat, you can find the list by asking him very nicely." Turning to the Deputy-Headmistress, he asked her in a whisper, which was amplified due to the _so__n__o__r__us _charm_, _"have I told them about the Forbidden Forest yet."

"Yes, Headmaster."

He resumed: "Ok, well then, I have a final two announcements. One good and one bad as they say. …

"As for the bad news, this year both the house cup and the Quidditch cup are canceled."

The entire student body released an unified groan. Harry was instantly red in his face, how could they cancel Quidditch?

Dumbledore resumed unperturbed: "In its place Hogwarts is honored to host an ancient tradition, the Triwizard Tournament. One champion from each of the three schools participating will have the opportunity to win everlasting fame and one thousand Galleons. I am sure some of you remember the last time it was held, I was just a little lad, but my mother would read to me about it, from the papers. The Daily Prophet had a whole page about the winner. Our own Gryffindor Champion won. … Sadly of course Clarence Mortimer won only posthumously, … you see all three champions died in the second task … it was rather grand anyway."

The Headmasters continued ramblings about the last Triwizard Tournament was drowned by the exited and feverish noise of the students. Everyone shouted atop each other. All wanted to know who would try to become one of the Champions.

Students were shouting across tables and the Gryffindor table was already taunting the Slytherins for not possibly being worthy of the honor.

Harry was still angry, this silly tournament could not possibly replace Quidditch!

"Silence!" The Deputy-Headmistress, used a slightly over-powered _sonorus _charm to get the student body back into control. "This concludes tonight's Welcoming Feast. Please, leave to your respective houses. First years, the fifth year prefects will lead you to your rooms, and introduce you to your new house. Please, do head to bed quietly. It is late, and classes start tomorrow."

Her last request was of course ignored. Nevertheless, with a loud murmuring, the students moved to the exit.

Harry turned to Mafalda, "Over there are our prefects. You can identify them because of the 'P's on their chest. Remember if you need anything, just come to me."

"Thanks, Harry. Good night." Mafalda said, and left with the other first years.

_**A.N. And so it begins. **_

_**I have a question: I am still learning this whole writing thing, so I would like some feedback. In this chapter I tried to show how Harry goes back and forth with paying attention to the sorting, and thinking back on his situation in Hogwarts. I hope it was an ok way of introducing his situation. How did that work?**_

_**So, according to Wikipedia, Mafalda is an unused character of early scripts of GF. Although that Mafalda would not be a Weasley, since she is from Molly's side, not from Arthur's. The character is rather sparsely described, so she will be mostly an OC, including the fact that she is from the Weasley side, not the Prewett.**__** When reading this I decided that a Slytherin Weasley cousin is perfect for a Slytherin!Harry story.**_

_**Also, I gave some cannon characters extra siblings, just because. Actually there is some sense that might or might not be more apparent in the future.**_


	2. Strange Detentions

**Strange Detentions**

Harry rushed through the deserted halls of Hogwarts. Professor Moody would not be pleased with him. It was the first day of class and he was already late. He had no real excuse. From the forgotten alarm spell, to the misplaced textbook, everything had gone wrong this morning. He wondered how the one eyed former Head Auror would take it.

He ripped open the door to the classroom, without knocking, and stepped forward. While he had opened the door, Moody threw a stunner at him. Harry froze, but due to his rushing, he still had forward moving momentum. He toppled forward and his stiff form awkwardly hit the floor.

"Class, what did you learn from this?" Moody asked.

"Don't be late to DADA this year." Lisa Turpin of Ravenclaw answered.

"Quite right, Potter, that will be detention with me tonight. Any other thoughts?"

"That dodging is not en…" Blaise Zabini of Slytherin tried. He was cut of by _mimblewimble,_ the tong tying hex. It was ironically one of the few spells Lockhart had taught them.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody roared. "you _never_ know when a crazy bastard throws a hex at you. This year, we will cover many tools for you to defend yourself, but non of them will matter, if you don't use your senses. If you don't see your enemy, you will be dead before you can say 'Mommy.' Understood?"

Wide eyes stared at Moody.

"Your parents, your grandparents and your great-grandparents, what did they have all in common? … A dark lord showed up in their youth, and a wizarding war broke out. Your great-great-grandparents avoided a dark lord, but instead had to face a goblin rebellion.

"Wizarding Britain is currently at peace, a very shaky peace, in my paranoid opinion. Unless you maintain CONSTANT VIGILANCE! you will be the next target of a death eater. We have had full out war, every twenty to thirty years, for a long time, so don't be surprised if things shake up again.

"Now, three of the favorite tools of all dark lords are the unforgivables. In my capacity as former Head Auror, I have the privilege of being able to perform the unforgivables, in a teaching role. This should not leave you to believe that you can try to cast them yourself. If either myself or any other teacher of Hogwarts finds you casting one of them, it is an automatic expulsion and a one way ticket to Azkaban."

A dramatic pause.

"Who here can tell me about the famous killing curse?"

Moody proceeded to explain the intricacies of the three unforgivables. It was obvious that he was both an engaging and a demanding teacher, if at times a bit brutal. Moody demonstrated the curses on a magical variety of tarantula. It was nerve wreaking to see a deadly tarantula do eight legged tap dance.

Harry was astounded in how much detail Moody was willing to give about the unforgivables. If he had not waned them about Azkaban, Harry could have sworn that Moody wanted them to try the curses on their own time. Harry was fairly sure that he had enough information to use at least the _imperio. _The other two he knew enough about, but he was not sure that he had enough hatred for anyone to be able to use them. Harry made sure that he took good notes.

"Now theory is all well and good, but that doesn't teach you anything practical. This is why I am going to cast the _imperio_ on each of you and see if you can fight it. This first time I have no hope of your success, but with time some of you will be able to fight it. This is why we will do this exercise periodically, throughout the year. Mr. Goyle, you are up first."

Moody now made various students do silly or embarrassing things. Goyle serenaded Malfoy, Morag MacDougal did a tap dance, and Hermione Granger warned everyone of the dangers of not cleaning teeth properly.

Then Harry was on the hot seat.

"_Imperio" _ Moody intoned over Harry. Instantly, Harry felt light headed. Colors were not so much brighter, but stronger. Green was greener and blue was bluer. He had this great idea.

He really should walk over to Millicent Bulstrode and give her a kiss.

Following this impulse, Harry stood up and took a few steps in her direction. As he moved towards her, he thought of another witch. And he began to wonder. He had never wanted to kiss Bulstrode before, why now?

With an effort of the will, Harry stopped. He was confused. The nice colors became threatening. Somehow everything turned gray. His thoughts could not leave Bulstrode alone. He closed his eyes. With all his might he tried to get some normal thought through his head.

'I … I … am …'

But instead his brain constantly echoed 'Bulstrode,' 'kiss,' and ' Millicent.'

He tried harder, with a simpler thought:

'I … like … Quidditch!'

With this simple statement, one that was truly his, everything snapped into place. Colors looked proper again, and the fire to kiss Bulstrode extinguished.

He looked around. His classmates waited for him to do something embarrassing. The glee on Malfoy's face was disturbing to witness.

"Why did you stop?" Moody questioned, his sole eyebrow raised.

"I was able to think a thought of my own, and that broke the curse somehow."

Moody's magical eye spun around disoriented. "You are full of surprises, Mr. Potter, what did you think of, that was able to break the curse?"

"Nothing complex, Professor. I just … I'm not sure, it was … strange."

Both Slytherins and Ravenclaws eyed him with confusion and jealousy in their eyes. Harry noticed the smile in Granger's face, though.

"Thank you Mr. Potter, next up … mm… Mr. Malfoy."

Within five seconds Millicent Bulstrode received her kiss, from the heir of the Malfoys. Harry was ashamed to say that he laughed loudest. He felt bad for Bulstrode, what had she done to deserve this? But Malfoy's face was just priceless. Red as a Weasley, as they like to say.

**HPU**

As Harry walked to the Great Hall for lunch, he ran into Granger.

"Hi Potter, nice job at DADA today. That was amazing. How did you throw of the _imperio_? I was completely taken by the vivid colors."

"Hi Granger. I can't really explain. I noticed the colors too, but I just was certain that something was off, I don't know how I was able to toss it. But if I was able to do it, I'm sure you will be able to fight it off soon, too."

"Well, hopefully. What do you think of the whole Triwizard Tournament?"

"I don't really care for it. The whole Tournament could be canceled as far as I am concerned, I much rather have Quidditch." he replied.

"I heard that Zabini is setting up a betting pool. Right now the odds are favoring Jordan Kettleburn of Ravenclaw and Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff. Angelina Johnson also has some good odds."

"Good for them, I guess. Do you think you will bet for someone?"

Granger grinned, "I'm not really a betting person. But you have by far the best odds in our year. It seems you are number five or six over all. The way the odds are, I might even bet on you. Your past history speaks for you to be one of the three."

"Your loss, I will certainly not attempt to get into the tournament."

With that they entered the Great Hall. They split up to go to their respective tables. These little encounters were usually really enjoyable. They kept them short enough that no one would suspected them of being friends, but Harry knew.

**HPU**

The door to Moody's room was open. With a knock, Harry entered the study of the Defense Against the Dark Arts Master. This was a better description then to call it Moody's study. For at least thirty years, no occupant had stayed more then one year. It was no surprise that the room screamed 'hotel room.' The only item in the room that clearly belonged to Moody was a trunk with seven drawers, stacked on a low table in the corner furthest from the door.

"Close the door behind you, Potter." Moody commanded, without looking up from the parchment.

Harry followed the instructions and then stepped in front of the table, awaiting further instructions regarding detention. He was somewhat curious what detention would look like from this bizarre teacher.

Moody finished whatever he was doing, and looked up.

"Thank you, for giving me this easy reason to call you to my office. I don't really want to give you detention. I was just looking for an unconscious way of getting a private talk with you. I have heard about you a lot. Dumbledore doesn't shut up about you. So I wanted to get a read on you myself. How have your years at Hogwarts been?"

"If Professor Dumbledore told you so much, then you know already that I tend to be in trouble with deadly threats."

"Getting down to the point, I see. Yes, these threats are what I wanted to talk about specifically. What are you doing to prepare for any future threats?"

"Future threats? … I'm a student…"

"Come on, Potter, I know you are not Granger, but I didn't take you to be stupid. Every year you had to face more than the average wizard has seen in a lifetime. What makes you think that this year will be different?"

"… I … guess I was hoping that …"

"Here is to hoping." Moody raised his ever present flask and toasted towards Harry, and took a swig. "But seriously, I want you to prepare for the Triwizard Tournament. Training for it should help you, no matter if you get selected or not."

"Professor, I have no intention of entering the Tournament."

"Did you choose to face Voldemort as a first year?"

"…"

"The choice is not yours, Potter. You have to understand, you are going to be in trouble for the rest of your life. You are one of these unfortunate souls that history revolves around. In a few centuries, there probably will be legends about you, like the 'Tale of Three Brothers.' All there is for you to do is to be ready for it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

"Constant vigilance, fine, what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to start a daily work out routine. Magic and physical fitness have nothing to do with each other, but having physical stamina in a fight can go a long way, especially if your magical powers are evenly matched. Here," he handed Harry a rolled up parchment, "this is the work out routine that Aurors are expected to follow. I don't expect you to be able to do them right now, but start working on them. In a few months you should be able to get to this level."

Moody got out of his seat and went to his trunk. He pulled out the second drawer from the bottom and stepped inside. To Harry's surprise he started to disappear into the drawer. "Come, come, what are you waiting for. I want to see what you are made of."

Harry followed Moody into the trunk. They stepped into a large room, maybe twice the size of a regular class room. The room was barren, the walls seemed padded. Harry looked around in awe. He wished he had a trunk like this.

"This is my exercise room. It's handy to be independent of the local conditions. I would like to see where you are at."

Without further explanation, Moody started to throw curses and hexes at Harry.

Harry was not confident in his shields, and because Moody started at a moderate pace, it was easier for him to dodge his curses by evasive movements. This tired him out quickly and Moody picked up the pace.

Soon, his jumping and twisting was not enough. Moody increased his rate of firing, while he became more and more winded. A nasty bruiser hit him in the calf. He would be hobbling for the next couple of days.

Harry knew when Moody unleashed three stunners at once, all in different angles, that he could not avoid them all. Maybe if his calf was good, but not with this handicap.

He stepped to the right, to deflect two of them, but also raised his _protego_ shield, which just barely stood firm.

Moody was not idle, he closed the distance, so that Harry could not evade as much.

Harry saw his chance, while Moody moved, he threw a stunner at him. He did not want to go down with at least having thrown some offensive spell.

Moody smiled and swatted the spell away. Without an interruption in his wand movement, he continued to cast his own spells.

Harry was befuddled, he had never seen this done, how was it possible? Distracted by this new style of defense, Harry failed to either raise a shield or to evade the oncoming spell barrage. A nose bleed hex and a stunner hit him in quick succession.

A few moments later, Moody revived him, and stopped his nose bleeding.

"I have my own critique, but I want to hear first what you think. How do you think you did?"

"Mmm…, I think I did all right with evading your initial spell chains. I got frustrated though, with not being able to attack you."

"You are right, I am surprised at your ability to get out of the way of even several spells at the same time. I wonder how you got this skill?"

"I don't know, good genes?" Harry got uncomfortable. He suspected that the Dursleys 'free' use of knocks hat honed his reflexes.

"This is also where you can most easily improve on your own. If you do the Aurors exercises I gave you, you will be in excellent shape soon, and then you will not tire out so fast. That should make you quite a bit more competitive. Ok?"

"I'll start that."

"Where I was really disappointed was in your spell casting. Or more specifically, in your lack of it. I also want to see you work on some spell chains. When you dodge a lot, this leaves you free to throw your own spells at your opponent. But for you to cast and move at the same time you need to have the spell down to perfection and have them in route memory. As your homework, take out your DADA textbook, go to the index and look up five spells that you don't know that you think you could use in a fight. Master them. We will meet same time in a week. I want to see those five spells then."

**HPU**

A few days later, on Thursday, fourth year Slytherins had potions together with Gryffindor.

Class had started on a bad note, Snape was clearly in a bad mood when he entered the room. His first action was to explode at Ron Weasley. Admittedly, Weasley had been more focused on telling Dean Thomas a joke, then on getting ready for class, but fifty points from Gryffindor in the first week was … harsh.

Everyone was therefore relieved when Snape seemed to clam down, as they began to brew their first potion of the year.

Harry and Theodore Nott worked well together, and the Potionsmaster seemed to not mind them.

Harry was concentrated on stirring the cauldron properly when suddenly a huff of smoke puffed up.

He could not avoid inhaling a bit of the smoke. His nose immediately began to fill up. It did not run, but it was impossible to breath normally.

Harry tried to blow his nose, but it would not come out.

He raised his hand.

"Yes, Potter, what is it?" Snape snapped.

"Brofessor, gould I go to 'adame Bomfry, my nose is gloged?"

"I see nothing wrong, Potter. Finish your potion."

Not wanting to get into trouble with this irritated teacher, Harry returned to his potion. But due to the stuffed nose, he had a hard time breathing.

Snape was evidently getting annoyed with him. He repeatedly glared at him.

"Potter, it is clear that you are not taking this seriously. How do you think your classmates can make their usual mediocre potions, with you trumpeting around like this. Cease your loud breathing this instance."

"But Brofessor…" Harry began.

"Silence, I don't want to hear from you, brat. Detention with me, … mh I can't tonight, … I guess you will have to ruin my Friday. Tomorrow at 7 pm."

The Slytherin side of the classroom was silent. This was unheard of. Snape giving a Slytherin detention, and for this?

The Gryffindors had a hard time containing their amusement.

**HPU**

Harry knocked on the door to the office of his least favorite professor.

"Come in." Is sounded from inside the room.

With a breath to brace himself, Harry entered.

Professor Snape sat behind his desk and looked much calmer then during class today.

"Potter, take a seat. I have something to share with you."

Harry did as he was told. He looked at Snape, right into the dark eyes, and suddenly a burst of pain burst through his head. Memories of the Dursleys, of Quirrell and the traps, of the Basilisk and of petrified Hermione, of dementors and of Sirius flooded his consciousness.

Then he blinked, and it stopped.

Snape looked startled at Harry, for a moment, and then put his Slytherin mask back on.

"What I just did is called active Legilimency. It allows the Legilimens to read any and all memories of someone else." Snape explained. "There is also passive Legilimency, in which the Legilimens only picks up what the target is currently thinking, not actively hunting for a particular memory. As you felt, active Legilimency is very painful and disorienting to the target. In contrast, when passive Legilimency is used well, the target will typically not know that he is targeted at all. For a Legilimens, such as myself and Professor Dumbledore, it is easy to read the mind of any one not knowledgeable about this art. Professor Dumbledore instructed me to instruct you in this art, and in its counter art, Occlumency, the art of defending ones mind against the intrusion of both active and passive Legilimency. I was initially very worried that this would be a pointless waste of time. I had little hopes that you would be capable of this nuanced art. This fear was somewhat alleviated by the story I picked up yesterday. If you were able to shake off the _imperio_ on the first try, and that seems to be so, then you have great potential for the mind arts, after all. Any questions?"

"Yes, I have some questions, Professor. Why does Professor Dumbledore want me to learn this? Does everyone learn this?"

"As for your first question, I have a few ideas, but until you have mastered Occlumency sufficiently, I have no choice but to refrain from sharing them. As to the second, no. Very few are able to learn this art, and it is not generally taught.

"Now, in order for you to learn how to defend against a skilled Legilimens, you have to know how to detect an attack and order your mind in a way that you can defend it. After that you can build a sort of memory castle, a bunker if you will, behind which you can hide all your secrets. If you allow me to do some building, I can greatly reduce the time you will need to learn."

Harry looked at Snape uncertainly. He was not sure that he could trust him. Snape was behaving oddly today.

"If it adds anything to your decision, some of this will help your memory, no matter if you can complete the process or not. It is not a complete loss either way."

Harry trusted Dumbledore, who trusted Snape. He had seen this multiple times in the past three years.

"Very well." Harry sighed.

"Before we begin, I have to inform you about the legality of Occlumency. The Ministry of Magic has officially banned any Legilimency and Occlumency from being taught apart certain Ministry officials. In order to learn it, one needs a permit signed by the Minister himself. You don't have one of these. I don't need to tell you that this means no one can know about this meeting. Including your friends. If one does not have even rudimentary knowledge of Legilimency, it is just too unsafe to have this information available. Also I would advise you to not look any ministry official in the eyes, unless you become an intermediate Occlumen. It is not complete protection, but it helps against most probes."

Harry nodded. But before he could really think about how illegal this was he could think no more. Snape had again entered his mind violently.

Harry had many painful experiences throughout his life.

Vernon Dursley had starved him too many times, beaten him senseless at others.

During the fight with Quirrell, possessed by Voldemort, Harry's hands had burned like a living flame.

After the bite of the basilisk, his arm had stung hellishly.

The deadness of the near dementor kiss had been enough to knock Harry out.

But of all of his painful experiences, Harry swore that the next hour, of Snape wandering through his mind, tearing some things down, moving others around, and building entirely new structures, was his most painful experience to this date.

There was a continuous scream looked behind his lips by Snape's skill. Harry felt violated on multiple levels. All his mind, his soul, his being was open to Snape and Snape worked through them clinically. His most intimate feelings were bare to his most hated professor.

Harry could taste the iron texture of blood after a little while. His nose had started to bleed, and he could not move or stop it.

His head was burning and exploding for an entire hour.

When Snape finally withdrew his mental probe and closed his eyes to disrupt it, Harry fell forward and blacked out.


	3. Welcoming Newcomers?

**Welcoming Newcomers?**

The next morning, Harry awoke in a bright room.

His head felt as if he had hit the Hogwarts Express head on.

There was a continuous hissing sound.

But there was also that feeling of relieve. It was the relieve of not feeling pain.

He could feel his mind repairing its structure. It was not growing back to what it was before. There was a regularity and a … 'thickness?' to it that was new to Harry's thought. He noticed that his memory patterns were different. They were streamlined. But they were also behind beginnings of walls, of fortifications. Harry wondered how this would affect his personality.

Harry opened his eyes. He could sense the soft fabric of the bed. But with his eyes he could not see.

No, that is not correct. Harry could see, but he could not make out what he saw.

Familiar shapes and forms were all around him, but he could not label them appropriately.

"You already woke up. You really should sleep another few hours. Here is a 'Dreamless Sleep' potion." A white clad … thing interrupted his thoughts. He could not identify what put some container into his hands. After downing a liquid, which he remembered tasting before, but could not name, Harry again drifted of to sleep.

**HPU**

When Harry awoke the next time, a … human … girl sat next to his … the cushiony flat, but compressible, surface that he was laying on. She was reading a box, … no a book.

He sifted through the strange fog that covered everything in his brain.

What was her name again?

"Gr … Granger? Is that you? Why are you here?"

When Harry stirred, she promptly placed the book into her bag and jumped to his side.

"Of coarse it is me, Potter, are you still tired? I know we can't be seen together too much, but I worried when I heard that you had a bad fall. How did you do that? You have been here for over three years now. I thought I'd let you know that today the other two schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are coming. We are supposed to get ready for the welcoming ceremony. Do you think you can get ready for that? Don't worry nobody but Madam Pomfrey knows that I am here. I just really had to visit you when I heard that you were injured. But you don't look injured? Did you get a concussion. They can really be bad if not treated. If you get too many concussion you can have severe long term problems. At least in the Muggle world. Healers probably have a potion for it, I will have to look at this next time I am in the library."

Harry knew she was worried. Granger was only this scatter-brained when she was worried.

Madam Pomfrey step to the bed. "Ms. Granger, no need to get upset. Mr. Potter is as good as new. He is still a bit confused but I think that he will be able to recover quickest by finding his old routines. Next time, Mr. Potter, watch the stairs. You really should know by now that they like to move when it is most inconvenient. Go now, welcome the two schools properly."

With that Harry was released from the infirmary.

As they walked to the little plaza in front of the school, where they were expecting to meet the other schools, Granger asked Harry, laughing: "You got so badly lost on the stairs that you had to spend the whole morning in the infirmary! What was really going on?"

"I must have forgotten the stairs strange behavior in the summer. I guess I was tired after Snape's detention. All I remember is going down the stairs and then waking up in the hospital wing." Harry lied.

Granger stared at him for a few moments. "Fine then, if you don't want to share with me. Don't!"

Granger was clearly angry. Harry did not know what to do. He had rarely had the occasion to lie to Granger. But he also didn't know why she was so upset. Yes, they were secretly friendly, but that didn't mean he needed to tell her everything! Granger was behaving uncharacteristically irrational.

They exited the court yard and separated to join their respective houses. The four houses were arranged in four separate squares. Harry had no idea why they were arranged in such a military fashion.. Some wizard must think it will impress the visitors.

Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived with suitably impressive magical means. Beauxbatons came with a giant flying carriage, and Durmstrang popped out of the lake in a submersible sailing boat.

Both contingents found living quarters in different abandoned wings of Hogwarts. The different modes of travel disappeared in the same manner that they came. They would return in the spring to take them back.

The ceremony was rather short, as it was evident that the schools had traveled far. The students looked tired. The short ceremony gave all, including a still befuddled Harry time to rest before the welcoming feast.

**HPU**

That evening, once the guest had settled in, there was a second opening feast. It was strange to have another feast in such a short time frame, just a week apart. Harry mused that it must have been to not mix local events, the sorting for example, and international events. This Opening Feast of the Triwizard Tournament was completely different from the regular opening of the year feast.

For one, the Great Hall had been reorganized. It would be rearranged for the remainder of the year.

The open space between the great entrance and the four House Tables had been cut in half. The four long house tables had been moved closer to the door.

In the space that this opened up between the four tables and the Head Table, there had been added two smaller tables. These tables where parallel to the Head Table, and they roughly seated twenty to thirty students each. This was plenty of space for each contingent.

The Head Table had also been rearranged. Instead of the long table where all the professors sat on an equal height, three new tables had taken its place. In the center, elevated by another podium was a table that seated five. To the left and right of this smaller table where two tables at the regular height. On it sat mainly the Hogwarts professors, but some professors from the visiting schools where among them. They did not bring many professors, since the majority of their students had to remain at home, with their deputy-headmasters.

On the central table sat in the center three seats, the three headmasters.

Flanking them, were two ministry officials. Harry had seen the pictures of them in _The Daily Prophet_ in the last week. The taller, skinnier man was Bartemius Crouch, Sr. the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. The shorter muscular man, with a beer belly, was Ludo Bagman, the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. The two had, upon the promptings of the Minister himself, worked extensively in order to revive the tournament.

In front of the central table on a little podium, stood a goblet. The podium stood at the center of a five stared pentagram, which emitted a soft greenish glow. The goblet was made out of polished wood. It was roughly two feet tall. In the goblet, where there usually would be some sort of liquid, there was a pool of flames. Even though it was wooden, the goblet did not burn up. There was no visible damage to it, despite the flames it contained.

The decoration of the Great Hall had also been greatly changed. Gone were the four house colors. Instead the red, white and blue of the Union Jack and the French Tricolor as well as the red, white and green of Magical Bulgaria dominated.

Once everyone was seated, Professor Dumbledore stood up. "Friends from Hogwarts, Friends from far away places. It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the first Triwizard Tournament Welcoming Feast in over a hundred years. I remember fondly sitting on the Gryffindor bench and fretting over who would become Hogwarts' Champion. … mmm … of course I remember less fondly how they all died, but you know, you win some, you ..."

"Thank you Albus," Director Crouch, interrupted the Headmaster, "It is with great pleasure that the Ministry of Magic welcomes the other two great magical schools of Europe, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. The traditions of the Triwizard Tournament originate almost seven hundred years ago. For various reasons, it has been discontinued for too long, but now, under the inspiration of Minister Fudge's leadership, we have again succeeded in bringing our three preeminent schools together in the hopes of showcasing the international character of magic once more. This is the core purpose of the Tournament, to bring together wizards and witches from distant countries and to foster the kinship all wizarding kind should have for one another. With this end in mind, Director Bagman and myself have worked tirelessly for the last months in order to revive this venerable tradition.

"We of the Department of International Magical Cooperation hope that over the the next year not only great magical feats would be accomplished, but also that you, the students of all three schools, would form lasting bonds, that will help you see past our British horizons.

"Professor Dumbledore has mentioned that in the past, Triwizard Champions died. This is sadly the case. In order for such circumstances to not trouble this Tournament, there have been various attempts to make the competition safe. First and foremost, the participants are required to be of legal age. Only if you passed your seventeenth birthday, by the day of the selection, October thirty-first, will you be able to pass the age line that Professor Dumbledore has placed upon the goblet.

"The Goblet!" Crouch dramatically waved at the wooden, flaming cup, "As is tradition, the Goblet of Fire will find the most worthy Champions for each school. I must warn you, however, whomever the Goblet chooses is bound by a magical contract. There is no backing out without loosing your magic."

With this dramatic statement, Crouch sat down. The Great Hall exploded into discussions. Everyone wanted to know who was going to place their name into the Goblet. Gryffindors were not to be beaten in bravery, several stood up during the feast and placed their names into the Goblet.

No Slytherin did so that evening, but Harry was sure that a number of snakes would add their name by the next day.

"So what are the odds that you will be adding your name, Potter?" Zabini asked.

"Considering I am fourteen, I think they are zero." Harry mused.

"Yes, but Halloween is when you always get into sticky situations. I bet you one Galleon that you will be one of them."

"Deal."

**HPU**

The common room of Slytherin was three stories tall. The main entrance to the room was a floor above the main floor. There was a big balcony all around the main floor. Underneath it were many little side rooms, open to one side to the common room. On the balcony, there were a lot of group seating areas as well. This left the open area in the middle of the room, where there was space for house meetings. The open space was also used for in-house balls or other social events, if the prefects of the year were enterprising enough.

A few days after the welcoming feast, Harry was in one of the little coves that opened into the big common room of the Dungeons. He was memorizing the five spells for Moody's homework. He could not practice them here of course, but he memorized the wand movement and practiced pronouncing the incantation here. He would later go down to the dueling rink, to really practice and perfect them.

Harry was fully concentrated on the wand he held in his hand, as he slowly moved it about following the description on the page.

He was totally absorbed in this task, to the extend that he did not notice a shadow enter the cove.

The person grinned for a moment at the contorted face.

"Boo!" Mafalda exclaimed.

Harry winced back, startled by the sudden appearances of Mafalda.

Mafalda giggled, but then became more pensive, "Hi Potter, I was looking for you, you said I could talk to you about any problems I might have…"

"Of course, what is it, is anyone in your year?"

"Originally, all in my year were cool. But Malfoy is constantly calling me a weasel and keeps me from getting to class on time. He makes some of the boys in my year do pranks on me. They steal my books and slippers. I still cannot find my Herbology book. Can you help me?"

Harry slammed his book shut, "_Revelio_ Mafalda's Herbology book."

A bright yellow arrow pointed right above them.

**HPU**

Despite the spell, it took them a half hour to find the book. This was because the spell pointed directly at the target, ignoring any obstacles that where in the way. This left them unable to easily find the path to the book.

Nevertheless, they had been able to find the book. It was on the top of a random closet in an abandoned classroom on the second floor. Harry had no idea how they would have found it without the spell.

After this, Harry had sent Mafalda back to study charms. If she got the basics of charms, he would be able to teach her the _revelio _spell. It was a generally useful spell, that didn't show up in the textbook until second year, even though the basics of charms was enough to understand it.

Harry was now at the base of the Gryffindor tower. He spied Lee Jordan walking towards the tower.

"Hey, Jordan," Harry shouted across the hall. Then when they were nearer to each other, "do you know where the twins are? I need to speak to them. It's about their cousin."

Jordan left and not ten minutes later the two trouble makers were in front of Harry.

"Weasley, Weasley, I was hoping you could help me with a little trick. Your cousin needs to protect her stuff. I was wondering if you had any ideas."

For a moment the two silently stared at each other.

Then the left one, began, "How severely do you want to treat any one who tries any funny business? We could make them get a nose bleed ore they could go to Madam Pomfrey for a week."

"I think a lighthearted warning would be better for a while. I imagined that turning their hair pink or lime green would do. We can always bring heavier spells in later." Harry said."

"That is easily accomplished. You have to combine charms and transfiguration. …" The two proceeded to explain how to create a spell that transfigures hair into a garish color, and how to tie it to objects. They further explained how to 'key in' some people, so that the spell did not have to be constantly lifted. Mafalda presumably wanted to be able to put her shoes on, and read her books, without her her turning lime green.

Harry took notice that the twin on the left explained the transfiguration part of the spell very well, while the one to the right focused on the charms part.

Both were very exited to explain how to remove all traces magic that could identify the caster. Harry was particularly impressed about this knowledge. It went far beyond the sixth year curriculum.

**HPU**

_**A.N. I **__**know my dialogue sucks, any recommendations on how to improve it? **__**I am also not pleased with the pace. Any thoughts?**_


	4. Routines Shattered

**Routines… ****Shattered**

As the first few weeks passed, Harry's world set into a routine. An early morning work out gave way to studies, interspersed with the special sessions of Snape and Moody. September gave way to October, and Harry found that, while he was still unable to connect much with any potential friend, he was too preoccupied with everything to actually feel lonely.

Harry tackled the Auror regiment, Moody had given him. There was a variety of exercises, designed to both hone his reaction time and build his stamina. To round off the regiment, daily runs were prescribed. At first it was just another daily round of torture, but as the month progressed, he began to cherish these solitary, early morning runs. He would wake up, before the sun got up, and run around the lake. It was a six mile loop and at the time when he would do them, it was six deserted miles. It was not as freeing as flying, but there was a rhythm to it that was somehow peaceful.

Moody continued to coach him in fighting. At first, Harry had tried to call what they did dueling, but as Moody drilled him more and more, Harry was convinced what they were doing had nothing to do with Lockhart's dueling club. Moody didn't teach him how to stun an opponent. He taught him how to kill. It made chills go through Harry's back. How was this guy teaching at Hogwarts?

It was Harry's second training session with Moody that woke him up to this fact.

_Flashback – _

"Ok, Potter, show me what you got."

There were three dummies scattered around Harry. They were, for the moment, stationary. All he had to do, was show Moody that he could, continuously, fire the five spells he had learned this week.

Harry dropped to a good fighting stance. Casting _per se _did not require this. As long as the wand was waved correctly and proper intent was present, the spell would work. But with spells used in fighting, Harry had become habituated to doing so. It allowed for quicker reactions to enemy fire. Footwork was key in duels.

"_Reducto, colloshoo, serpensortia, ventus, immobulus!" _Harry rapidly fired at a dummy. He had practiced these five spells incessantly for the last week, and the magic flowed out of him effortlessly.

"Not a bad start, Potter, your execution of the spells is acceptable, although the spell chain puzzles me. Explain to me, what are your thinking?" Moody said, as Harry made the snake disappear.

"I started off with a blasting curse. I don't really expect it to land, but since it is a heavy hitter, my opponent should dodge it, which I hoped would leave an opening for my _colloshoo_. With his shoes sticking to the ground, the snake summoned by the _serpensortia _should have an easier time at getting to him. Then to distract him from the snake, I send a blast of wind after him, as well as trying to immobilize the target."

"Your last two spells are completely wrong for that task. You are right that you need to distract him from the snake, otherwise he will get it easily, but a blast of wind won't do. And the immobilize is redundant. You already stuck him to the ground. No, you need to redouble with heavy hitters. "

"My snake could have taken him out, it doesn't really matter what I throw at him." Harry tried to object.

"Potter, when you go for the attack, you need to throw as much deathly force at your enemy as possible. You throw your snake, a _reducto _and a well aimed cutting curse. No matter what he tries to block, two more deadly threats are there at the same time. When you fight, fight to win. Go for the kill."

– _E__nd Flashback_

Harry met with Snape, as with Moody, on a weekly basis. Harry was happy that there seemed to be real progress in his mental capacity. The sessions, while still creating headaches the next day, did not get him into the hospital any longer.

The sessions focused on reconstructing his mental pathways, which served a twofold purpose. It led all thoughts past his still embryonic defenses, and it redirected them onto more efficient patterns. Harry noticed that even after just a month, he had an easier time staying on top of classes.

Harry felt a bit guilty about this. It did give him an unfair advantage over his classmates. He wondered how many purebloods had at least rudimentary Occlumency training for this purpose.

Over all, Harry liked his new schedule, but it did make his almost nonexistent social life disappear entirely. He was rarely able to see Mafalda anymore and a strain was cast between him and Granger. For example the morning after his second Occlumency lesson, he had a first real fight with Granger.

_Flashback – _

Before Harry even opened his eyes, he knew it would be a bad day.

Harry was aware that he was in the Madam Pomfrey's domain. Unlike after the first Occlumency lesson, he had no problem sorting out where he was. Nor did he have any trouble recognizing Granger's bushy hair, which was, as always, buried inside a thick tome.

What he did have trouble with, was forming a cohesive thought. Unlike last week, there was no relieve of painless foundations to his mind defenses. Instead, there were new pathways for his thoughts, that were cut through old habitual routes.

Would this change his personality?

His head felt like the Hogwarts Express had rolled over it.

The new patterns of thinking were not natural.

"I suppose, you fell down the stairs again?" Granger thankfully distracted him from his thoughts.

"No, the Hogwarts Express crushed my head."

"…"

"Granger, I'm sorry, I can't tell you."

"… I guess that is better than lying to me."

"What do you want me to say?"

For an awkward minute neither patient nor visitor knew what to say. Granger abruptly changed the topic, "I want to know, why you went to the Weasley twins for help with spells? You know I could have helped you with that."

"They are masters at pranks, and I needed it for their cousin. Why wouldn't I go to them?"

"I have always been able to help." Granger raised her voice.

Harry grabbed his head, "Shh, my head feels as if I had been through a Hippogriff stampede."

"Fine, if you don't want to be a friend." Granger stood up.

"Hermione, you always agreed, we couldn't be friends." Harry reminded her, almost at a whisper.

Granger glared at him and stormed out. Harry released an irritated sigh. What had happened to the rational and pleasant Hermione Granger that he had known? The summer was not that long.

And his head still hurt.

– _End of Flashback_

But it was not only Harry's relationship with Granger that suffered from his extracurricular studies.

In the House of Slytherin, the unofficial ceasefire had ended, that had been since Harry had taken over the seeker position in second year.

Malfoy did not like that Harry was improving in the class rankings. Harry was still far from the best among the fourth graders, but he was moving steadily upwards. While Harry had never shared the bottom of the standings with Crabbe and Goyle, he had never had the focus or drive to be even in the top half of the rankings. Harry had wondered if he would have done better if he had friends to push him. It was a moot point. He had always had no reason to try harder. Malfoy did not know that Harry improvement was driven by Snape's Legilimency practice and the tight schedule he had to follow.

Malfoy also despised that Harry was making any friends in the house. Even if they were just first years. Harry had helped Mafalda out on some occasions. While the years and schedules created a natural barrier, Harry and Mafalda, as well as her best friend Isolde Greengrass got along well.

Harry suspected that Malfoy's real worry was that through Isolde, Harry would befriend Daphne. Or worse, become allies.

Malfoy felt his position as most prominent snake threatened. This resulted in various small, but annoying confrontations between the two.

_Flashback – _

Harry left Charms in a little hurry. He had Herbology in only ten minutes, and it was outside by the greenhouses. It always was rather tight to be there on time. But today, he also had to pick up his dragon skin gloves. While he had dug through his bag, during Charms, he had discovered that he had forgotten to grab them in the morning.

Malfoy stopped him, "Mr. Potter, I would like to complement you on your performance in Defense last week. I was really impressed that you were able to get out of that unforgivable. But I guess you are used to at least one of them, they must be all the same."

"Heir Malfoy, I don't know that I have knowledge of the other ones. If you excuse me, Heir Malfoy, we have to get to Herbology."

With this short interaction, Malfoy had achieved two ends. He had once again driven home that he was the 'Heir of the Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy,' one of the magical families that had come over with the Norman conquest of Britain.

Harry knew that whenever Malfoy addressed him as 'Mr. Potter,' he did it to drive home his superiority. Harry was not sure how many picked up on this, but Slytherin house customs forced him to, if addressed formally, reply with the proper title. In this case with 'Heir Malfoy.'

It was really not that big of a deal, but it was Malfoy's small way of getting around Snape's enforcement of 'the public face of Slytherin.' It had been long a tradition that Slytherin showed a united front to the rest of the school. This prevented the worst of Malfoy's jabs, at least when they were not in the Dungeons.

Secondarily, at least in Malfoy's mind, not in Harry's, was that this most likely meant that Harry was late to Herbology.

– _End of Flashback_

If this was all that happened, then Harry would have thought, 'well, better then first year,' and left it at that, but while his own routine was hardly affected by these shenanigans, Mafalda's troubles escalated. Malfoy's posse verbally harassed her almost any time they were in the Dungeons.

But that was not the worst of it. Often, second and third years would throw various hexes at her. There were a few times, in which the young witch even had to go to Madam Pomfrey to recover. Harry was strongly reminded of his first year, before he was discovered as the Slytherin Seeker in the second.

Harry tried as best as he could to protect the little redhead, but it was useless. Their schedules were too different for one, and Harry could not constantly guard her. Harry was glad that Mafalda had become such good friends with Isolde. With at least one friend at her side, Mafalda braved the Dungeons with a resolved frown. He was a bit surprised how quickly she adopted the Slytherin mask.

Of course the Slytherin lessons that Snape taught included contributed to this. Every Slytherin grade meet weekly with the head of house after all. In these lessons, they learned proper pureblood traditions and etiquette. Topics varied from how Slytherins should project house unity outside the Dungeons, or how to properly eat at a banquet to tips or even practice on dueling. Harry was reminded that the Dungeons was a school onto itself.

For some reason, this year Snape had introduced dance lessons in these Slytherin classes. Harry found, after the initial embarrassment of stumbling over each others feet, that he rather liked to dance with the pretty girls of his house.

All in all, it had been a busy first two months.

**HPU**

Today, the annual Halloween feast had for the first time gone as Harry had hoped.

Event-less.

Harry had spent the day mostly in silence. His two little, Slytherin friends knew that he would not want to talk on the anniversary of his parents death. He wished he could go and visit their graves. Harry was usually silent, but today he had been mute, in memory of them. In a small miracle, no one bothered him during the entire day.

Now , the Great Hall was again filled. Halloween was always fun to most students, but this year there was the added tension of the selection of the Triwizard Champions. The feast went as normal, however, apart from the presence of the foreign delegations. The visitors sat at their respective tables, and, with their alien tongues, added a bit to the flavor.

The Halloween feast was over now, and everyone was anxiously awaiting the decisions of the Goblet.

For this first big event of the Tournament, several reporters were allowed into the back of the hall. There had been erected, just for this night, a small podium to the right of the great door, so that they could get a good view of the spectacle.

Zabini's betting business had been a success. Harry was sure that no matter who was selected, Zabini was going to make a pretty penny.

Now the two Directors stood up. Both said a few words, that Harry tuned out on. Director Bagman tapped with his wand at the rim of the Goblet. The fire flared up and a moment later a small piece of paper rose into the air, and drifted onto the floor.

Bagman picked up the paper. He smiled in recognition when he read the paper. "Viktor Krum, the great Seeker of the Bulgarian National Team is Durmstrang's Champion!"

Loud applause. Bagman was not alone in his assessment that the Goblet had chosen correctly. From all tables, but especially from the Durmstrang and Gryffindor tables arouse clapping and whistles and a few shouts .

"Krum!"

"Show them!"

And some unpronounceable slogans, presumably in Bulgarian.

Harry would not be surprised if Krum would prove to be the most popular Champion.

Krum slowly rose from his bench. He was slapped on the back by some of his classmates. He shook the Directors hands and was pointed to a small door in the back corner of the room.

When the noise had finally settled down, Director Crouch tapped his wand on the Goblet. Again a piece of paper rose. Crouch caught it while it was floating down. He also seemed to recognize the name. "Fleur Delacour is Beauxbatons' Champion. Her Father is well known among the diplomatic community as the French Magical Ambassador to Britain."

The applause at this announcement was much more measured at first.

Then one of the loveliest women in the room stood up from the Beauxbatons table. She was tall and slim. Her blond hair reached to the round curves of her behind. Her chest was large, but not disproportional. In addition to the undeniable physical beauty, she also possessed a strange kind of magnetism. Harry guessed that she had some Veela blood, which could explain this aura. He had heard comments about her before.

Instantly the applause by the male population of the room doubled. She gracefully bowed. Harry noted that her own table did not cheer specifically hard.

Fleur courtesied to the Directors and followed Krum to the little door.

Director Bagman again tapped the Goblet. This time, he caught the paper as it came up the Goblet.

"Hogwarts will be represented by Gryffindor's Angelina Johnson. A Quidditch star in the making!"

The lions erupted into jubilation. The other tables followed a bit more subdued. Slytherins only clapped politely. Harry was sure that most snakes would root for Krum instead.

Angelina, with loud cheers from the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables virtually bounced to the Directors, quickly shook their hands and disappeared to the little door.

Crouch began to close the feast, "This concludes tonight's feast. I hope you encourage all three Champions, in their preparations for …"

A … _hiss_ came out of the Goblet. Then the flames doubled in height and turned green. A fourth parchment arouse. Then the Goblet returned to its regular flame. It would only extinguish at the end of the Tournament.

The Hall was silent.

This was not supposed to happen.

Crouch hesitantly approached it and picked it up. With a blank face he read the paper, barely above a whisper: "Harry Potter."

"Could you repeat that?" asked Bagman.

"Harry Potter! Please go to the Champions room."

Harry was frozen. The entire population of the Great Hall stared at him.

"Having second thoughts now, poser?" Draco whispered to him.

Harry did not grace that with a response. He rose and darted to the small room. Whispers followed him.

**HPU**

_**A.N. F**__**inally the Champions. I really want to move things along, but it just wont come out. My bad. **_

_**I must also admit that I was delayed and a bit rushed in posting this. I was reading **_**U****nspeakable Things**_** by Darth Marrs, **__**and got kind of sucked into that story, distracting myself from my own writing. I highly recommend all of Darth Marrs's writings. Most of them are rather lengthy, but well worth the time.**_


	5. To Be a Champion

**To be a Champion**

Harry entered a small room. It did not appeared to be in regular use. There was no furniture inside, besides three cushy chairs, arranged in a semicircle, facing the door. The three older Triwizard Champions sat in them.

They looked up with startled expressions.

"'Ave zhey called for us, leetle boy?" Fleur asked.

"No." Harry didn't bother to explain further. He waited until the judges would come in. The three Champions shrugged their shoulders.

They did not have to wait long. Just seconds after Harry had entered, the five judges and Deputy-Headmistress McGonagall as well as his Head of House, Snape, entered. There were different concerns present.

Headmistress Maxime of Beauxbatons and Headmaster Karkaroff of Durmstrang were concerned that their schools had been shortchanged, that Hogwarts had the numeric advantage in the Tournament.

Headmaster Dumbledore and Deputy-Headmistress McGonagall were concerned for the safety of their pupil.

Director Crouch was concerned how Harry had gotten past the age line.

And Director Bagman was not really concerned but rather exhilarated that the Triwizard Tournament had added Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, to the line up. In his mind he could see the ratings explode.

Snape almost disappeared into a corner and simply observed what was going on.

Harry loudly protested his innocence and exclaimed his desire to not participate in the competition.

The three original Champions were silent and exchanged looks of raised eyebrows.

"Potter has to participate in the tournament, the ratings will go through the roof." Bagman exclaimed.

"Zhat ees outrageous. Eef 'Ogwarts 'as two Champions zhen Beauxbatons demands two as well."

"He can not be allowed to enter the tournament. The rules are clear, he us under age." the Deputy-Headmistress chimed in.

"I agree." Karkaroff said, "the boy is doubly infracting on the rules of this noble tournament. He is too young and he is cheating the other two schools."

"It is unfortunate then, he will lose his magic if he does not compete, I remember my great uncle once did not read the fine print…" Dumbledore somehow still had a serene smile. It looked like he didn't see have a problem either way.

"You are saying that Harry is forced to participate, no mater what ?" Karkaroff frown grew twice as dark.

"The cup indeed establishes a magical contract with each name it emits. Disregard of said contract ends with the normal penalties of breaching such contracts." Director Crouch pontificated.

Professor Snape stepped out of the shadow of the corner, as Harry clarified: "The 'normal penalties of breaching such contracts' is …?"

"Death, Potter," said Snape, "death. You will have to defend your life and your magic in this spectacle. Even the ministry accepts the right you have to do defend yourself."

"That is correct, we uphold the right of self-defense. Harry Potter has to participate in the Triwizard Tournament." said Director Bagman, with glee, he turned to the two visiting Headmasters, "I am sure our departments and your schools will be able to find a way of balancing this out, after all, this trip must have cost a little something, am I right?"

The two look at each other. The not so subtle hint of a monetary settlement was something unexpected. Schools are notoriously underfunded. While the premier schools of the Magical world could not be described as poor, additional funds would always be welcome. Both would only be too happy to 'cover traveling expenses.'

"Bien," said Maxime.

"I'm sure we can come to an agreement." Karkaroff had Galleons in his eyes.

Director Crouch breathed out in relief. "Now that this has been sorted out, let me conclude by explaining some things. Director Bagman and myself have prepared the three challenges with safety as our primary objective. The tasks should be doable for you, with some preparation. We decided that, to ensure that you are really ready, each one of you can have one and only one tutor. Please inform your respective Headmaster as to your choice, by Monday morning. The first challenge will be a surprise. It will take place on November twenty-ninth. Good luck to you all."

With that they were sent back to their respective housing.

**HPU**

Harry and Snape walked to the Dungeon in silence. Inside Harry turmoil reigned. He, a fourth year, was going to compete in a deadly international competition, against adults. Moody had been right. Death was always playing with him.

Inside the Dungeon, the mood was hard to gauge. Practically the entire house was congregated in the common room. Snape send the prefects to make sure all snakes were indeed present. For several minutes they waited as more Slytherins filed in.

Whispers droned throughout the room. Some groupings were visibly exited that a Slytherin would be representing them in the Tournament. Other groups had more grim visages.

In one corner Zabini was already collecting and paying out the wagers that he had arranged. Judging by the smirk on his face, he had made a cauldron full of galleons.

Harry did not know what to do with himself. He wanted to disappear. He wished he could use his cloak. Mafalda and Isolde as well as some other first years crowded around him, some staring at him with big eyes, others shyly avoiding to look at him. Isolde and Mafalda congratulated him. They chattered incessantly wondering and speculating what the tasks where. They were beaming and proud to be associated with the Slytherin Champion. Harry remained quiet.

Snape continuously scanned the room. When he was satisfied that all snakes were present, he shot a small firework spell towards the ceiling. Instantly the room was quiet.

"There are several old traditions that the other houses will probably forget, unless they pick it up from us." Several snickers were heard at that. "I will research this a little more, but from what I have found, there is the custom of referring to any of the Champions, for the duration of the Tournament, as Champion and their respective last name. Thus it will be Champion Potter, Champion Johnson and so on. I don't think it is necessary to stick to this at all times, but if it is a formal situation, then absolutely. I don't want to hear of 'Mr.' Potter for the rest of the year. For the winner, this custom is often extended to the entirety of their schooling, as part of the 'eternal glory' that they will earn.

"Another custom that I will follow, is that the Champion gets a prefect's room. As with the title Champion, this also gets extended in the case of the winner.

"An internal Slytherin custom is to give the Champion first right at the dueling arena, so that he can prepare. Honor duels still trump anyone. Champion Potter has the second right to the arena, before even the DADA NEWT and OWL students. The practice room is big so it should not commonly be a problem. If Champion Potter deems it necessary, however, to practice, lets say multi-person battle, and needs the whole room, he will get it.

"There are some more traditions that get observed around the time of the tasks. I will research them in more detail, and inform all when the time is necessary.

"Before all go to bed, I want to make a final clarification. I don't think I should have to say this, but:

"Harry Potter is your Champion."

Snape paused and stared at specific people in the room.

"Knowing current house relations, with two Champions from Hogwarts, the great majority of Hogwarts will be rooting for the Gryffindor Champion, Angelina Johnson. Many will accuse Champion Potter of stealing the spot, and of pushing Champion Johnson aside. This will make him unofficially only our own.

"I don't want to force you to accept him as such, when you are in the Dungeons, you may, apart from the traditions I mentioned, interact with Champion Potter as you wish. In the rest of the castle, however, you will use formal speech with him. You will show the rest of the castle that we stand by our champion. We will close rank behind our champion, as it is proper for Slytherins to do. Am I understood?"

There were general sounds of agreements heard throughout the room. Certain snakes were rather silent.

"All right, now I expect you to celebrate that we have a champion, but don't miss curfew."

The snakes now started partying. Several poker tables were seen to form. Drinks of questionable origin appeared. Snape ignored these and turned towards Harry, "Champion Potter, please collect your personal items and meet me here in ten minutes, so that I can show you your new room."

**HPU**

The common room of the Dungeon was actually the top of the entire Slytherin complex. Truth be told, no one knew precisely how far the Dungeon spread. This was probably the main reason that rumors of the Chamber of Secrets never ceased in Slytherin's house. All of them knew that there where countless corridors, passages and shafts that tunneled far below the castle. Even after centuries of Slytherin exploration, no single snake had seen it all, perhaps since Salazar Slytherin himself. Every year, at a minimum, three first years would get lost within in the Dungeon. Just during the first week.

The deep tunneling had the nice effect of keeping the Dungeon warm. Unlike the rest of the castle, it was always comfortably warm in the empire of the snakes. The air was heated in the deep, and was circulated by runes. This also prevented stale air from building up.

The regular dorm rooms were all fairly close to the surface. The dueling arena was further down. The potions laboratory further still. Real dungeons even lower, and then countless rooms of various purpose. Or many with no apparent purpose.

The prefects' rooms, however, were strewn all around. They really was no set design of a 'prefect room.' There were just various single bed rooms spread around liberally, some close to the common room others way down. Some were simple and spartan, while others were downright luxurious. Each prefect had the choice of occupying any one of these rooms, as long as it was unoccupied. If they had the means they even could convert one of the unused rooms into a new prefect room. This practice meant that the supply of prefect rooms was ever increasing.

Harry chose a simple room close to the dueling arena.

**HPU**

The following Monday, Harry and Moody sat in the, still empty, office of the DADA teacher.

"Dumbledore told the staff that each champion would be asking one instructor as a tutor. Have you thought about who you will chose?"

Harry thought for a moment. "I have been studying privately with both you and Professor Snape. I was thinking Snape would be most appropriate, since he is my Head of House. Also, Professor Dumbledore asked me to continue with Snape."

"What are the reasons you would choose either?"

"Both of you are accomplished fighters. I don't really know who is better in that regard. Maybe you two could duel?"

"In your dreams, Potter. You know that we are not identical, so what makes you chose Snape? And don't tell me Dumbly is your only reason."

"He did ask me, but there are things I can't talk about, that …"

"THEN DON'T TALK ABOUT IT." Moody interrupted him. "CONSTANT VIGILANCE! If you need something to remain secret, you can't just tell anyone who digs for your motivation, that you have a secret. But, please don't tell me that you are influenced by anything but you getting the best help you need, to win this."

Harry paused for a moment. Moody was trying to push him to think on his own. But was he not also trying to argue that he should be the tutor? He seemed to try to lead Harry just the same, but the others were at least more open about it.

"I do think Snape will make a good tutor, he knows his stuff, and one on one he is even a decent instructor." Harry had learned this the last month, in Occlumency training. It was strange to voice this fact out loud to anyone.

Moody let out a sigh.

"All right, if that is what you want, this will be our final meeting outside of class. Be alert, don't trust anyone, CONSTANT VIGILANCE. And I will try to give you the hints I can. For the first task that would be to make sure you know the _accio, _and to be able to summon your broom into the arena from outside it. I can't say more than that, but that should give you something. But don't stop learning and training! Keep on fighting, with CONSTANT VIGILANCE "

**HPU**

On the way to lunch, Theodore Nott appeared to the right of Harry.

At first Harry eyed him with suspicion. Up until now, Nott had not made it a habit of spending time with Harry. He was not part of Malfoy's clique, but was well liked by everyone, especially the purebloods. He was heir to a noble house after all. His primary connections seemed to be Greengrass and Davis, maybe Zabini. While he was popular enough he seemed more of a loner than anything.

This morning in Charms, he had suddenly appeared at the side of Harry. Harry had to admit, his help had been valuable, they learned the charms much quicker than usual.

Now Nott tagged along to lunch. Harry didn't know how to take it.

Was Nott fishing for association with the Slytherin Champion? That seemed to be the most logical explanation. But it was out of character? It didn't seem like Nott had ever cared to get to know anyone, let alone someone in the limelight. Harry had not seen him reach out to anyone, Davis and Zabini had initiated those associations. Greengrass had just tagged along with Davis, sort of. Moody's advice rung in Harry's head: 'don't trust anyone.'

"Champion Potter," Nott said, "I was thinking you could use a sparring partner. I would be honored to help you with this?"

Harry thought. 'He is right, I could use a sparring partner. I only meet Snape twice a week. It would be great to have other people to train against the rest of the week. We'll see how helpful he is with that…' Harry was not sold on him, but Slytherin associations had been build on far less useful foundations.

"That would be helpful. Do you have time tomorrow at seven?" This would allow Harry to finish his morning runs in solitude.

"It's a little early, but you set the schedule."

"Come to think of it, do you know the a_ccio __s_pell? It could be useful to know."

"Very useful, if you know it well, you have to never get up again, just to get something. It's fairly easy, I'll show you, tomorrow."

They were now approaching the gate to the Main Hall. As they were about to head to lunch, one of the Weasley twins interrupted them.

"Hi, Potter do you know where Mafalda is? We were going to meet her, but she never showed up. We've been looking for her."

"Sorry, I haven't seen her today. The last I have seen her was last night in the Dungeons. I haven't seen Isolde today either, the two are always together. I'm sure there up to something."

"Not to worry, I'm sure we'll find her in time, see you around little champion." The twin laughed and disappeared towards the Gryffindor table.

_**A.N. Is the French accent over the top? Or just bad? I never know, when I read them, the 'French' accents amuse me, but I'm not entirely sure about me writing them. **_

_**I have been reading **_**Unatoned****_ by SeriousScribble. It is a different kind of Harry Potter fanfic. VERY dark. A kind of dark mystery, sort of twisted H/DG. Give it a shot if that peaks your interest._**


	6. Lessons and House-Elf Troubles

**Lessons and House-Elf Troubles**

"That is enough jumping around for today, Potter. Lets head to your room for your other lessons." Snape's wand disappeared into his robes.

Both Snape and Harry were breathing rather heavily. It had been their first dueling practice together. They stepped out of the Slytherin dueling arena. They remained quiet for the few steps it took to get into Harry's new room. Once they entered his room they sat on the two chairs next to the small round table that provided a little seating area to the room. Harry could do homework in peace here.

"You clearly show that you have been practicing with a Gryffindor lately. Moody's attack first, think later style shows in your tactics. Some of that fits your rash style. Your dodging defense is good for one so young. But you are a Slytherin. Think."

"Professor Moody always repeated that one should not think in battle. He always said that you should have your motions so ingrained in you that you don't need to think. I thought I was doing well with that."

"Yes, some things need to be automatic. For example most expert duelers have somewhere between one and two dozen go-to spell chains. Each of these spell chains is automatic. Your reactions, like dodging needs to be automatic."

"Then what do I need to think about? With all my opponents I've been outmatched. I need to react to survive."

"Don't give me these lazy excuses, Potter. Moody is a competent Auror, he had to have taught you about attacking."

"A good offense is the best defense. That is why I continuously try to go for the attack, to get the opponent off balance."

Snape sighed. "But that doesn't mean you need to throw out your brain. You need to continuously think about various plans of attack, of your surroundings, of your and your enemies positioning, of your enemies strategy and your best response, of potential other threats, of countless factors, while at the same time automatically defend any attack on you. You need to be proactive, which I have never seen you be. You need to do so many things at once that only with Occlumency can you really get it all under control. Which is why we will now return to your Occlumency lessons. Let me see how your defenses are building."

"Professor, before we do that, I have a quick question, have you seen Mafalda Weasley lately? The Twins were looking for her yesterday, and no one seems to have seen her since." Harry was trying to delay just another moment the pain of such lessons, even though it was inevitable.

"I'll look into it, Potter, now stop stalling." With that Snape dove into his mind again.

**HPU**

A few days later, Harry and Hermione sat in the abandoned class room. After the choice of the goblet, Hermione was adamant that he let her help him prepare. She had evidently decided to let the matter, whatever had made her act so strangely, rest. Harry's position as Slytherin's Champion had raised his standing enough that Hermione didn't worry about what her house mates thought. And anyways, as she said, "Whatever they might do to me is nothing compared to what you will have to face."

Initially they had tried to duel. This had run into several problems. First, the Slytherin dueling arena was not open to other houses. They had not been able to find a room private enough, that would also allow them to duel. When they had tried to go outside, they had discovered that even though Harry was not living up to either Moody's or Snape's expectations, he still had already far outpaced Hermione in his dueling skills.

It would have been Harry helping Hermione, not him becoming better prepared for the tasks.

There were other strengths, however, that Hermione could contribute. She had, upon hearing about the Triwizard Tournament, gone to the library. She had spent the past week researching past tournaments. She had made a statistic analysis of all past tasks. And so they now sat together and when over these statistics.

The two were covering the first task, and Hermione was convinced that it would be some dangerous magical creature. They went over the most likely candidates.

She had also researched the best approach to defending against these candidates.

"Dragons are the third most common first task. I have a hunch that it might be the task this time." Hermione said.

"Why?" Harry said.

"The Ministry is trying to convince everyone that they are serious about safety. As dangerous as dragons are, they are the safest of the most common first tasks. I think they will go with one of those, because they are also very dramatic. This is a show for the Magical world after all."

"Dragons are the safest?"

"Dragons are relatively safe, they are predictable. In the wild they actually rarely attack humans. Dragon handlers is an actual job. I have no idea how they brought chimaeras to the schools. Or how they were contained."

"So how would I best take down a dragon?" Harry tried to look for solutions, to calm him down.

A sudden crack disrupted their conversation.

"Help, Great Wizard, Master Harry Potter, HELP! Is being matter of live and death. …," shouted Dobby.

Harry had learned how to handle these kinds of outbursts. He abruptly and efficiently crumpled up some parchment and stuffed it into the house-elves mouth, while keeping it in with a quick sticky charm. Hermione frowned at his behavior, but for the time being Harry didn't see how else he could respond.

"Now Dobby, if you promise to _calmly_ explain to me what the cause of this, then I will remove the parchment. Nod if you agree to this."

If Dobby had nodded any more violently, his head would have come off.

"_Finite incantatem" _Harry removed the sticking charm.

Dobby instantly ripped the parchment out of his mouth and with a snap made it disappear. As he did so he quickly explained: "Master Harry Potter giving many pardons, please. Dobby's friend, free-elf Winky is dying. Only, Greatest Wizard Harry Potter is being of help. Winky is needs of binding."

"It is so sad that house-elves are so indoctrinated in their servitude. I have been thinking about starting this group, S.P.E.W. …"

"Hermione, not now." Harry interrupted Hermione, then turning to Dobby, he spoke softer, "I don't understand, Dobby. Why does Winky need binding."

"All house-elves is of dying if not bound. Winky's old master was not happy with Winky and let her go."

"But why, Dobby?" Hermione now interjected.

"Is of ancient covenant between Wizards and House-Elves. Dobby is not knowing more. House-elves is dying if not bound to wizard. Winky is dying."

"But, Dobby, you are a free-elf, why would you not be dying?" Harry questioned.

"Mmm, Dobby has special bond."

"What do you mean? Special bond?"

"Dobby is bonded to Great Master Harry Potter, sir. Dobby's bond is bond of freedom. Dobby is wanting freedom, and the Greatest Wizard, Master Harry Potter is giving Dobby freedom."

"Harry you can't possibly take him seriously. These creatures deserve to be free. You can't help this slavery to continue." Hermione interjected again.

"Hermione, there is a lot in the wizarding world that we don't understand. I want to see in what condition this Winky is in before we make our decision. Dobby bring us to Winky."

"Yes, Master Harry Potter."

Dobby gestured for Harry and Hermione to follow him. He guided them to the kitchen of Hogwarts and past it. Through a wide hallway, to a small door.

They appeared in a dark corner of a small room. Both Harry and Hermione had to bend down to not hit their heads on the ceiling.

They stood next to a molding pile of dirty rags. Sown about were bottles of butterbeer in various stages of consumption. Harry even spied a few bottles of real beer. The rags where soiled and the smell of alcohol instantly hit Harry's nose. Underneath this pile a few elven extremities could be seen.

Dobby gently pulled at one of the hands. "Winky be waking up. Dobby is bringing Winky help. Winky is needing to get better." He murmured into the pile of rags.

"Dobby be leaving disgusting elf Winky alone. No help be for Winky." They heard. But nevertheless, Winky's head appeared from within the pile. Her eyes are squinted together and bloodshot, and her skin is a deadly white. It has a plastic look to it that reminds Harry of death. While the bloodshot eyes could be explained by the alcohol, the skin showed clearly a progressing sickness. Hermione sucks in her breath in horror. She holds her hands in front of her mouth as tears fill her eyes.

"Winky is needing bond," Dobby muttered. "if free for two days more Winky is being gone."

"Dobby, what do we need to do to save her?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Is very simple. Harry Potter's Hermy is holding Winky's brow."

Hermione, without thinking placed her right hand on Winky's forehead.

"Now, is saying, socius meus."

"_Socius meus."_

Winky's eyes pop open and she responds: _"Soci__o__."_

The change in Winky was subtle, but still very noticeable. Her eyes were still bloodshot, that may have come from the alcohol. Her skin started to slowly gain color. A faint pink indicates that blood flow returned to the skin. The deadly plastic texture began to recede. It would take several days to get Winky back to full health, but recovery clearly started after this little ritual. She got up, in her naked elven glory, bowed to Hermione and said: "Winky is being ready. What does Mistress Hermy wanting Winky to do?"

Hermione looks at Harry, who as dumbstruck as she is. Then she looks at Dobby who nods his head vigorously, smiling from ear to ear.

"What does Harry Potter's Hermy first is commanding Winky is being very special." Dobby blurbed together.

Shaking her head in confusion Hermione finally says: "My first order shall be that if you, for whatever reason, don't like my orders, you will inform me of your concerns. I want you to talk to me about any problems you have with my … ownership of you. Clean yourself up and clean this room until you can live in this. I will have to find out what I should do with you."

**HPU**

Hermione was oddly quiet for the rest of the day. She did not say another word to Harry until she headed back to the Ravenclaw tower.

Harry knew she would be headed to the library tomorrow. And he was glad for it. Dobby's half explanation of his bond to Harry was worrying. He had always been happy for Dobby to be a free-elf. Now he learned that he was not so free at all, Harry did not know what to think. In effect Dobby operated completely independent from Harry. Dobby had found himself a job here at Hogwarts. Although that now raised the question if Dobby had found this job in particular in order to be closer to his master. It did not sit well with Harry.

In short, Harry would be pleased if Hermione's search would led some light on this.

One thing that he could test right now is if Dobby responded to him as a house-elf always did to his master.

"Dobby" Harry spoke softly.

There was a soft pop, and Dobby stood in front of him. 'Well, might as well get some information right now' Harry thought.

"Master Harry Potter called."

"Dobby, tell me everything you know about your special bond to me. Also, what is it with this master business?"

"Master Harry Potter, Dobby does not know about this. Great Wizard Harry Potter and our bond is being very different than Dobby's former master."

"What do you mean by that?"

"With good masters, the elven bond being very deep. With bad masters, wizards being closed to the full bond. But Great Master Harry Potter is different. Wondrous Wizard Harry Potter does not feel bond at all. Dobby not being smart enough to tell why."

**HPU**

After class, Harry wanted to be alone for a little while. He snug into an unobserved corner, and threw his invisibility cloak over him. Thus hidden, he made his way towards the front hall and to the bridge leading out of the castle. His goal was the little lake by the Forbidden Forest, where he had chased the dementors away last year. He wanted to be alone outside to be able to think a little. Getting away from the business of the Triwizard Tournament and the strange news of elven bonding.

On the bridge he was embarrassed to to observe a little encounter between Fleur Delacour and Nathaniel Bridgestream, a seventh year Gryffindor.

Fleur stood to the side, but Bridgestream was in the middle. Bridgestream was evidently agitated, and prone to sudden movements. Harry was worried that if Bridgestream stepped the wrong way, he would be discovered. Thus, he decided to wait for at least a moment and see if he could sneak past Bridgestream in a better moment.

"Fleur, … I was thinking, … you and I, we would look good together. How about you … er … come with me … mmm … to the Yule Ball?" Bridgestream asked. He had build up some of that Gryffindor courage to do this.

Fleur looked at Bridgestream with contempt. Harry was astonished that Bridgestream didn't tuck his tail in and ran at this moment. If ever a look could kill, this one would incinerate. Fleur seemed to hope for Bridgestream to just leave, but Bridgestream was either more stubborn or stupid then that. After a few moments she elaborated: "_Je ne te conai__s__ pas_. Leeve me alone."

This was finally enough. Bridgestream mumbled, "Sorry, I asked" and dashed away, into the castle.

Harry could have now moved on to the little lake, but something stopped him.

Fleur's face was utterly miserable. Every feature displayed loneliness. A lonely tear rolled down her right cheek.

Harry was struck. He had never imagined that the beautiful Fleur Delacour could be this sad. A wave of sympathy washed over him. She appeared so popular and well know, but seemed to have no real friends. Harry remembered the lackluster cheers from her own table at the night of the goblet. He was reminded of his own fame. He knew something of her trouble he was famous, and much of his time at Hogwarts was lonely too.

How could he help her?

**HPU**

"Nott, could I talk to you a minute?" Harry asked.

"Of course Potter, how can I help?"

"I have… There is this strange… Granger and I now both have our own house-elf. I don't know what to think of that."

"How are you sharing a house-elf? Only members of the same family can do that. Did you vassal her?"

"Vassal her?" Harry frowned, "What are you talking… No, I have Dobby and Granger's is Winky."

"Ok, what is the problem then. I don't understand, most families have at least one house-elf. Did you steal them?"

"No, we didn't steal them, I thought I helped Dobby to get free, but turns out he just traded an abusive master for a non abusive one. Winky was sent away by her former master. Don't you see a problem with having slave labor?"

"Slave labor? Have you talked to them? They love to work. In fact they couldn't survive without the bond." Nott's face displayed utter bafflement. House-elves wanted and needed to work, wizards provided that work, and benefited from the servants, what was the problem?

"I'm not against working. We all have to work to survive. But we can choose where we work. At lest after we leave school. House-elves are stuck. Wizards force them to work, and every labor deserves its wage."

"Look, this is a symbiotic relationship, house-elves get to live and have fun by the way, we get workers. Yes, some wizards abuse this, but that is a separate issue. House-elves love to work, that is what they are in their nature. Just be happy that you have your own worker."

Harry could see that he would not get a better answer than that. He would let it rest for now. Hopefully Hermione would not do something rash about the whole deal.

_**A.N. **__**Happy 2020!**_

_**I am kind of torn with this chapter. It seems a bit out of place, but I do have a plan with what has been introduced. **__**It's been a while since the last post, so I decided to just post it, imperfect as it is.**_

_**Also, h**__**ow w**__**ould you grade**__** my house-elf accent?**_


	7. Mafalda, Friends, and Pixies

**Mafalda, Friends, and Pixies**

'Where has Mafalda been?' Harry asked himself. He could not remember seeing her since the selection of the Triwizard champions.

Harry had determined to talk to the Weasley twins about it. He really should have noticed this sooner, but with the preparation for the Triwizard Tournament, he had had other things on his mind. He had biweekly lessons with Snape. Harry swore that Snape only agreed to teach Harry in order to teach him in the most painful ways possible. It was true that Harry improved dramatically, but he also saw more of Madam Pomfrey than he would have liked. In addition to these lessons, he exercised daily and sparred with Nott, also biweekly. Nott had a surprising repertoire of spells, and it was always invigorating to duel with him. Harry was almost to first name basis with him. Meeting with Hermione took the last little bit of his free time.

It was little surprise that he had not remembered Mafalda. He had just assumed that she was somewhere with the first years. Thus, Harry was now on the way to the Gryffindor tower.

As luck would have it he ran into one of the twins half way. The hallway was deserted, and so he didn't hesitate to get to the point.

"Weasley, I need a moment. I have not seen your cousin since Halloween. I have asked around a bit this morning, but all I could find was that no one has seen her since the feast."

The Weasley sighted. "Mafalda is missing. Fred and I have been looking for her for the last week. The Headmaster told my parents that he is making inquiries. My father got the Ministry involved. The Minister himself has ordered this to remain a secret. They don't want this to detract from the tournament. Which is ridiculous. Dumbledore swears that she did not leave the castle. Something about the wards. So they are searching Hogwarts." He frowned.

"What, how can they suppress this? Mafalda, a little firsty, is gone. We have to find her."

"I know, I know," George deflated, "but Dad said that Crouch and Bagman have the ear of the Minister. They don't want this to leak. Apparently a deadly tournament is more important that Mafalda."

"But the Headmaster is letting that pass? He is responsible for us students."

"Yes, but you know how senile he is getting. Also, he probably is tired of all the negative press in the past years."

"If they are not doing anything, than we have to. What have you done?"

"We have looked _everywhere_. We have found nothing."

"How can you be sure that you have looked _everywhere_?You could have missed a thousand cracks in Hogwarts."

"No, Fred and I have our ways. She is not in the castle."

"Mm. We'll see about that." Harry was thinking of the Slytherin Dungeons. If the senile Headmaster was right about the wards then Mafalda was still in the castle. No matter how sure the twins were, they could not have checked the Slytherin Dungeons. They were endless. She was down there, he was certain. He would have to add another little item to his already full schedule. Hopefully Nott would help him.

Without another word Harry turned and departed.

**HPU**

He went straight to the office of Deputy-Headmistress McGonagall. He had talked to his own head of house a few weeks back, and that had obviously not done anything.

He knocked on the door, and a terse 'come in' came through.

"Mr. Potter, what brings you here today?"

"Professor McGonagall, I just learned that a student is missing and that neither the Ministry nor the faculty think it necessary to do anything about it."

"Do not presume that we are not doing anything."

"I am not 'presuming' anything. My time here has taught me that the faculty is happy to let students, me in particular, do the dirty work for them."

McGonagall let out a sigh. "Professor Dumbledore knows for sure that little Mafalda has not left the castle. He is in control of the wards of Hogwarts, and he can tell when people enter and leave the ward area. He has a method of verifying if specific students have left the wards. I have organized the faculty to search the castle systematically. The Ministry is not particularly helpful, but some Aurors in plain clothing are here for this."

Harry glared at the Deputy-Headmistress, he said, with disgust dripping in his voice: "If one of your lions was missing, you would not let the Ministry make this mediocre effort."

McGonagall rose and started to protest, but Harry left her office and went to the Dungeon. What could he do?

**HPU**

In the middle of the Slytherin common room, Malfoy held court. It was just before lights out, so naturally, most students were still chatting with their friends or frantically attempting to finish tomorrows homework.

In one of the larger couches, Malfoy sat. Pansy was at his right, attempting to get closer to him. His two goons lounged on either sides of the pair.

Before him, two sixth years debated on the blood status of the offspring of two half-bloods. They were attempting to impress Malfoy, in order to get a better shot at a promising internship the following summer. Malfoy was rumored to be consulted, when the elder Malfoy hired students for various jobs. It was one of the rumors that strengthened the young Malfoy's position in the house.

Harry stepped to this little group. After his renewed fight with Hermione he needed to let go of some steam.

"Heir Malfoy, pardon my interruption, I just wanted to thank you for your cooperation with regards to the dueling arena yesterday."

"…"

All eyes in the little group stared at Malfoy, how would he react?

Malfoy's eyes on the other hand bore for oil while looking at Harry. His teeth where in danger of being crushed to gravel. "I am glad to be of service, … Champion Potter."

Harry gave a little bow to Malfoy and retreated to his room. There seemed to be some small perks to being one of the Triwizard champions.

As he walked down the hallway, he noticed that Nott was following him.

"Nice job, there Champion."

"Shut up, I had a bad day. Mafalda's gone missing. … Actually. I would like your help."

"My help? With what precisely?"

"I am reliably informed that Mafalda is still in the castle, but that she is not anywhere above ground…"

"So where is she?"

"I am sure that she is somewhere in the Slytherin Dungeons. We need to find her."

…

"All right mate, I will help you with that, on one condition."

"I thought we …"

"If we will sneak around all over the dungeons, facing who knows what, we will need to be friends. You will have to call me Theo." Theo smiled.

"Only if you call me Harry." They both smiled.

**HPU**

Two weeks after Hermione had bound Winky to her, Harry was practicing with her again.

Again a pop disturbed their studies.

Both Dobby and Winky stood before them.

Winky looked like she had recovered completely from her time as a free-elf.

Dobby stepped forward and cleared his throat. He looked between Harry and Hermione. His head turned red. He looked back at Winky. His head got even redder.

Winky said, "Dobby being shy. Dobby just be brave elf."

Dobby cleared his throat again, and looked at the floor. "Dobby and Winky be asking Masters for permission to become special friends."

A moment passed. Harry and Hermione looked each other in the eyes. Now Harry cleared his throat, "Are you asking us if you can date?"

Another moment passed. Then Hermione nearly exploded. "What do you ask me for? Who you date is your private concern. Who do you think I am I, a tyrant? That is between you two."

The two elves looked at each other with big eyes.

Winky stepped forward. "Mistress Hermy, begging forgiveness, this being your concern. If Dobby and Winky be's special friends and Dobby and Winky like the arrangement, and a few … understandings happen, then … maybe a little baby elf comes to the world. Elves don't want to have to stop right before that. So elves always ask before making special friend outside Masters house. If Mistress Hermy does not like sharing baby elves with Master Potter, she only says and Winky be forgetting Dobby."

Hermione stared at Winky. She took a deep breath. "All right Winky, you can date Dobby. Please leave us now."

"The same goes for you Dobby." Harry said.

With a pop the two disappeared again.

Hermione turned to Harry. "This is ridiculous. Wizards control elf reproduction!"

"It makes sense that if elves from different families have offspring that that could cause problems. Elves are valuable…" Harry tried to clear up the situation.

"Elves are not valuable, they are sentient beings. You can't put a price on that. They deserve self determination. Your acceptance of this disgusts me" Hermione stormed out of the room without another word. Harry sighted, he had evidently said the wrong thing.

**H****PU**

Harry headed into the Great Hall. Harry was about to begin his breakfast, and after the last long morning workout before the first task, he was ready to eat a horse.

Before he could sit down, Moody pulled him aside. "A moment, Potter."

"Of course professor."

Moody, to no ones surprise, erected some privacy wards.

"What do you know about the first task?"

"Hermione researched a lot, and we know it is going to be some magical animal. Hermione thinks it is a dragon, but we made plans for other beasts as well."

"Good, good. On _entirely _unrelated notes, do you know the summoning spell?"

"Of course, it's a second year spell."

"Good. Might I suggest that you have your broom handy. Maybe a friend could take it to the arena."

Throughout the conversation, Moody's magical eye spun around. Now he snapped both eyes, magical and normal, to a pair of wizards that just entered the Great Hall. Director Crouch entered with Percy Weasley in tow.

"Ah, Crouch has a new assistant. Weasley seems to be on the rise, from what my old contacts tell me. I wonder where he stands in this whole mess."

Harry looked at him with confusion.

"Anyway, think on what I said." With a flick of his wand he lowered the privacy wards. "See you in class, Potter."

At that moment Crouch and Weasley passed Harry to get to the head tables.

"… is all ready for the big event." Weasley said.

"Thank you Percy. You have done outstanding work. This tournament could not have happened without your help."

"Thank you, sir. It really was nothing." Percy turned red.

"If you want you can sit with your family."

"Excellent idea, sir. I will, after I talk quickly with …" The pair moved out of hearing range.

Harry sat down and finally dug into his breakfast.

'Five days until I face dragons.' Harry thought.

**HPU**

Harry was just leaving a long class of double portions that Slytherin shared with Gryffindors.

His fists were clenched. His eye lids were compressed into almost slits. With his eyes he stared into the distance, never focusing at anything in particular, but if someone approached him, he just closed his eyes, and shut them out.

Harry had had a hard time eating, even though he knew he needed to.

Lost in his own thoughts he slowly made his way out of the classroom.

Two days until he had to face dragons. Probably.

"Ye' regretting placing ya' name in t'at goblet" Before Harry stood Seamus Finnigan. Unnoticed by Harry, he had lost contact with his Slytherin classmates, and was now surrounded by Gryffindors.

"Don't embarrass Hogwarts too much. Angelina will …"

"A dozen against one, I see real courage there." Suddenly Daphne Greengrass stood besides him.

Out of nowhere, several Slytherins stood besides him. Harry was surprised to see even Malfoy there. House loyalty apparently counted for something. The Gryffindors stepped closer as well.

"Non o' ye business, Greeny. 'M just helping t'e…"

"I don't think your help is appreciated." Greengrass cut in haughtily.

Ron Weasley's face was turning red and he stepped even closer, it looked like he was about to punch Greengrass.

Malfoy looked to his right to Goyle. With his head he pointed him forward.

Goyle stepped in between Weasley and Greengrass, and shoved Weasley back. "Careful, weasel." He muttered. Weasley was almost as tall as Goyle, but only half the weight. He stumbled backwards, into Lavender Brown.

"What is going on here?" The Hufflepuff prefect Cedric Diggory appeared, he quickly looked around. "Go, I'm sure you have better things to do. Harry a quick word with you. Please."

The commotion dissipated.

"I'm sorry about this, Harry. Give it time, the school will come around."

"Sure, they always do." Harry grumbled. "But meanwhile they think I am a liar and a cheat."

"I can't say what the others are thinking, but I believe you. You just need to know, you are not alone. Even outside Slytherin you have friends."

Two more days…

**HPU**

In the tent outside the Quidditch pitch were four very nervous teenagers. Harry sat close to the entrance of the tent. To distract himself, he observed the other three people in the room.

Johnson paced back and fourth in the center of the room. Anxiety was contorting her face into all sorts of amusing frowns.

Krum leaned against one of the tent poles. His face betrayed no emotion. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be meditating in preparation of the task. His experience in professional Quidditch must help with the nerves, Harry thought.

Delacour was idly flicking her wand. She too betrayed no emotions. Whenever the tent door rustled in the wind, however, she tensed up and glanced at the entrance.

From outside the ten, the exited sounds of the crowd drifted to them. Every other minute, one of the schools would start to chant their school name. Thus the rambunctious crowd could be heard shouting "Beauxbatons" or "Durmstrang." The cheers of the home team were exponentially louder when they intoned the Hogwarts anthem. As in the Welcoming Feast, countless different melodies were used. Harry wondered what their guest made of it.

When their nerves could not be more tense, Bagman entered the tent.

"Here are our Champions. How do you feel? Ready for some Pixies?"

Bagman was alternating between hyperactive excitement and some sort of disappointment.

"In order to convince the Ministry that we are serious about your safety, we have chosen a magical creature that should not deadly, but should still give the crowd some entertainment value. You will be fighting two dozen Amazonian Hive Pixies. You will be fighting new swarms each, so they are all fresh. I must warn you that while they are cousins to our Cornish Pixies, they are a much larger challenge. They possess a sort of unified mind, and can coordinate their attacks as one. Their bite is also poisonous. The poison is not deadly, but will immobilize their victim within three minutes of being bitten. They will be protecting their nest. Underneath the nest is a ring. You are required to get this ring in order to complete this challenge, and then reach the gate at the other end of the stadium. We will now draw lots to determine the order of your challenge."

The four champions each drew a numbered token from a bag.

Johnson was first, then Krum, then Harry. Delacour would be last.

Bagman exited the tent. Harry tried to tune out the crowd. Moody's recommendation of the _accio_ spell and the broom made sense now. With his seeker skills, he could, hopefully, just outfly an angry swarm of coordinated Pixies. Since he had no better plan, he would have to try that. Hermione and he had not planed on Amazonian Hive Pixies.

Relieved that he had at least a plan, Harry noted that Johnson got up. Percy Weasley of all people had gestured her to follow him. They departed, presumably to go to the task.

Outside, the crowd had silenced, Bagman explained the task.

"… and now for the first challenge of the Triwizard Tournament. Our four champions will be fighting Amazonian Hive Pixies."

"Pixies?" A lone voice cried.

"Boo!" The crowd interrupted him collectively.

"I am just as disappointed in this challenge as you, but they are far more dangerous than their Cornish cousins."

"Boo!"

Someone must have cast privacy wards around their tent, because after this the noise from outside muffled. Harry started to now pace back and forth.

The minutes slowly ticked past. Harry resorted to Occlumency exercises to calm down. An indeterminable amount of time later Viktor Krum vanished.

Then Percy Weasley motioned to Harry to follow him.

Harry left the tent, and pursued Weasley into a tunnel underneath the bleachers. Time seemed to have stopped to a halt.

They walked to the other end of the tunnel, and waited just before the exit to the arena.

"Now our youngest champion, from Hogwarts, Harry Potter!" Bagman announced.

Harry stepped out of the tunnel, into the arena.

_**A.N. **__**I know, no dragons for this story. I decided to try to make up three new tasks for this story. **__**I know that is not the norm, but hopefully it'll be still interesting. As far**__**as Mafalda is concerned,**__** I should probably have gotten **__**her **__**abducted sooner, but finally it is her**__**e. **_

_**I **__**have been reading **_**The Cupboard Series**_** by Stargon1. I would recommend it, **__**i**__**t is the first seven year redo series that I have actually seen finished. It is done well. If you know of another series like that, could you share in a comment? I would be curious to know.**_


	8. The First Task

**The First Task**

_Harry stepped out of the tunnel, into the arena. _Around him stands had been conjured up. The Quidditch stadium usually only seated a thousand, enough for the students and staff of Hogwarts, and some parents. Now it seated a good ten thousand, maybe half of the Magical population of the British isles.

He ignored the stands and looked at the task at hand.

In the middle of the field, a strange pile of wood hung on a pole. It was evidently the nest of the Pixies.

Around it, two dozen bright green Pixies swarmed. They where slightly bigger then the Cornish Pixies that Harry hat seen last year in DADA with Lockhart. They were about the length of his forearm.

At the base of the pole lay a shiny object, the ring. He only had to get it and get out, and he would pass this task.

Before he got any closer, Harry wanted to get his broom. "_Accio _Harry Potter's broom."

A moment passed, and then he saw his broom fly towards him from the Slytherin section, where Theo was sitting. Harry smiled.

Then a dome of red light flashed, concentrating at the point where the broom impacted a hitherto invisible barrier.

The broom continued to bounce against the dome. It drifted around, while it bounced. Harry gave up with this approach, and canceled the spell.

Loud laughter erupted from the Gryffindor section. The Durmstrang and Beauxbatons sections joined them.

Harry hung his shoulders. What could he do now?

He thought on his spell repertoire. 'What would be useful against these Pixies?'

He examined the Pixies behavior. It was not that he needed a particular strong spell, but it needed to get him past twenty four, independent, but cooperating, poisonous pests. Harry did not know of a shield that could not be flown around.

He had an idea: "_Ventus_"

A strong gust of wind moved across the arena. The swarm was pushed to the other end of the arena with it.

Harry sprinted as fast as he could towards the nest.

Now the swarm discovered him. There was angry buzzing and then they spread out. Harry attempted to redouble the spell, but now that they were spread out, he could only get a few at a time.

In a moment of vanity, he was pleased how he had progressed in mobile spelling. He barely had to slow down to cast several different spells in quick succession, looking for the best one against the pest at hand.

"_Aguamenti!_" Harry put quite a bit of magic into this squirt of water. It disoriented the Pixie for a short time and pushed it back. But it only got one Pixie at a time.

"_Depulso!_" this basically had the same result as the gust of wind, but again only one at a time. He needed to find something more permanent.

The body bind: "_P__etrificus totalus!_"

For a quick moment the targeted Pixie was still, but then another Pixie flew to it and bumped its head. It flashed quickly and both were flying again.

Harry remembered that they were from the tropical Amazon rain forest. A place that is hot year round. Maybe they were weak against cold?

"_G__lacio__!_" The freezing spell.

Bingo!

The bright green of the Pixie turned turquoise and his target first slowed down and then dropped to the floor.

Another Pixie again came to its aid, but this time it could not help. It rather became slow itself, from the cold, but did not immobilize itself.

Harry threw the spell at the handicapped Pixie. One Pixie darted at him from the corner of his eye. He instinctively responded, and just moments after the last spell downed this one too. Three Pixies down twenty one to go.

Harry now had an useful spell. But could he keep it up? He knew that while not extremely draining, the _glacio_ did require some stamina to be cast two dozen times.

But before he could worry about this, he saw that the Pixies made a concerted counter attack.

Harry was now only ten yards from the nest.

The remaining Pixies had divided into three roughly equal groups.

Two groups charged from opposite directions. Trying to catch Harry in between, unable to defend against one of the two charges.

Harry reacted without thinking. He threw another gust of wind at the group from his right, and concentrated on immobilizing as many as he could of the group to his left.

One … two … three … They dropped like flies. Six were down in no time, the seventh of the group tried to doge behind a rock.

Harry ignored it for now. He was halfway through the task, underneath the nest. He saw the ring. It is golden, but Harry had no time to look at it too closely. He just slipped it on to his left little finger. And looked for the exit. The task is not yet won, he still had to get out of the arena.

There on the opposite side to where he entered is another tunnel through the stands. He dashed forward.

But as he steps out from below the nest, the third group dive bombs at him.

They had hidden behind the nest, while the other two groups had attacked him. Harry now understood. They had only been a ruse to distract him from this maneuver.

Harry again, instinctively now, threw the _ventus_ at them.

Five Pixies were thrown violently at their own nest. Some were knocked out cold, while others where only momentarily disoriented.

Three, however, had been outside the area affected by the spell.

One, Harry caught in another _glacio_, before it could get to him.

One, he was barely able to bat away with his left arm, as it tried to bite him into his ear. It crashed into the floor with a satisfying clunk.

One, Harry was not able to stop.

Four needle like teeth cut into his right lower leg.

Harry smashed at the beast with both fists. The Pixie fell to the floor. It's head completely crushed. It would never move again.

But it was too late.

Harry looked at his leg. He felt numbness spread out from the four small wounds.

He didn't have time for reflection.

He had less then three minutes, he needed to move.

"MOVE!" Harry shouted at himself.

Harry darted towards the exit. The remaining dozen Pixies redoubled their attack.

As he ran and cast at the same time he noticed the numbness spread. It slowed him down. At this pace he would not make it. What could he do?

He stopped. His last round of spells had taken all but five remaining Pixies out. The five were tending to their wounds for the moment. But the numbness had almost spread through his entire leg. Only the upper thigh was still normal. He could barely hobbled along.

Harry dropped to the ground, and picked up two rocks. He transfigured one into a rope, and the other into a small stick. He started to tie it around his leg. Harry placed the stick as Moody had taught him. He pulled tightly and tied it as snugly as he could. It was a make shift tourniquet. It was painful, but he hoped it would slow the blood flow across it for long enough. The tourniquet was a muggle method, but Moody had said it had saved him multiple times.

He got up again. The Slytherin section cheered. Harry realized that he had tuned out the crowd until now. Battling even just Pixies had been his entire. But now his main enemy was himself. He could not give up.

With his left leg almost completely numb and without any direct control over it, he stumbled forward. He transfigured a small rock into a stick, a make shift crutch. For the time being this was enough to help him keep balance.

He kept an eye out for the Pixies. They had positioned themselves between him and the exit. They seemed to be aware that their poison was in effect. It was only a mater of time until Harry would be paralyzed.

'Keep moving!' Harry kept repeating to himself.

The tourniquet was so far working. It had slowed down the blood flow. His entire leg was now numb, but above the tourniquet he only felt a slight numbness. It was growing, but if he kept moving, he might make it.

His pace was now fairly slow, a few steps every second. But he was getting there, the Quidditch field was a standard length of five hundred feet. So since the nest was in the middle, he had to get about two hundred fifty feet to the exit, when he had been caught by the bite. With every step he was getting closer, now he was maybe one hundred fifty feet away.

The crowd was more subdued now as he was moving. He did not really care what they thought, but the encouragement from repeated "Potter, Potter!" and "Show them, Potter!" distracted him a bit form the numbness, and made him feel as if he was not entirely alone, even if, really, he was.

He felt his right leg also starting to become numb. It was slow, the tourniquet was working, but he was running out of time.

Then when he was roughly seventy feet from the exit, he collapsed. His right leg was not controlled enough anymore to make up for his left leg. A disappointed murmur went through the crowd.

At this point the remaining five Pixies decided to attack.

Surprisingly, they did not really cause too much trouble. They were attacking from different directions, but his _glacio_ was now almost second nature. What surprised him most was that even after having cast it almost twenty times, he felt no strain on his magic. His body was another story, but his magic was very much fine. He took down all five in twenty seconds.

The crowd cheered for a moment, until it realized that he was still stranded. An Auror approached him.

He took a deep breath, and waved her away. The crowd cheered at his refusal to give up.

He could do this: He was Harry Potter.

He had fought Voldemort, twice.

He had slain a basilisk.

He could not let Pixies get the better of him.

So, he experimented. For about forty feet he was able to use his right leg enough to do a decent army crawl. It was slow, it was painfully slow, but he was getting there.

The crowd was impressed. They liked seeing him not give up. If he was not mistaken, he could even hear some Gryffindors cheering him on.

Then even his right leg was too numb to be useful. Pulling himself by only his arms was excruciatingly slow. He had to repeatedly wave away the Aurors and mediwitches.

Then he tried something new. He discovered that he could still use his two arms to roll himself around. His legs did not cooperate at all, and where quite in the way, but it worked. It probably looked pathetic, but he was going to make it.

As the exit line approached, he could not think on anything besides reaching it anymore. His entire focus was on reaching that line. He felt the numbness rise, coming up his stomach and then his chest. It became harder and harder to roll around.

After what seemed like an eternity, Harry rolled across the exit line, leaving the wards marking containing the field behind.

He lifted his left arm, with the golden ring on its little finger into the air.

The crowd roared.

And then the mediwitches finally took him to the infirmary.

**H****PU**

Harry's injuries were patched up rather quickly. The Pixies poison was rather mild compared to its paralyzing effects. The antidote took effect within minutes. And so, Harry's make shift tourniquet actually caused the most damage. The muscles and arteries below it were damaged, and even with some potions, he would have a slight limp for a couple of day's.

Johnson and Krum both were up and about, as well, but they were kept in separate infirmary tents, while Delacour was going through her task. She was much quicker, and was not injured at all by the Pixies. After only a few minutes of rest all four were brought forward to determine the results.

The four champions now stood in the center of the arena, as they awaited the scoring. The judges, Directors Bagman and Crouch, and Professors Dumbledore, Maxime and Karkaroff sat at the judges table.

"Esteemed Witches and Wizards, we have seen valiant acts of our contestants. They have displayed courage and tenacity. We will now proceed to evaluate their performance." the _sonorus _enhanced voice of Director Bagman boomed throughout the arena, "First we have to judge Hogwarts's original champion, Angelina Johnson. To refresh our memories, Johnson showed great magical ability in transfiguring six rooks into small dragons, and then directing them to distract the Pixies. Sadly, this did not provide enough cover for her and she was overwhelmed by five Pixies, after she had obtained her ring. Johnson was not able to complete the task.

"The champion of Durmstrang, Viktor Krum used the cutting curse to exterminate the entire swarm of Pixies, and then calmly traversed through the arena. It was a display of brutal efficiency as he was able to use the cutting curse on multiple Pixies at a time.

"Our youngest champion, Harry Potter, charged at the Pixies with a combination of the _ventus _and the freezing spell. He was able to eventually subdue all of the Pixies, but was bitten by one before he froze it. Despite this, Harry Potter completed the task through pure force of will, finishing the task by rolling over the exit line.

"Finally Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons used her Veela powers and transformed into her avian form. As a bird she simply flew through the arena and outmaneuvered the Pixies. She impressed all of us with her quick time, Delacour only took a minute and a half to complete this task."

Now Director Crouch spoke, "We will now award up to ten points each, for a maximum total score of fifty points. I should remind the judges to be balanced, and to look not only at the time, but also at the elegance of the task. First up, Angelina Johnson."

The five used their wands to conjure various numbers. As expected for not completing, Johnson received a small score. All but Dumbledore gave her under four points, while he gave her a six, presumably for effort. Johnson was not happy with her score of seventeen, but still received thunderous applause from her lions.

Krum's numbers were strange. His own Headmaster gave him a ten, while everyone else gave him mid range numbers between four and six. Harry wondered if Dumbledore's four was for using a too violent approach, and resolved to only use as much force as necessary in this tournament. Krum's numbers added to a respectable thirty-one points.

Harry was amused to find that he tied with Krum. He had received a more even grading, apparently his approach was not as controversial.

Harry and Beauxbatons was rather disappointed in Delacour's results. She had blown away the competition, but received some rather poor scores. Both Dumbledore and Maxime gave her a ten, and Bagman a nine, but Crouch and Karkaroff gave her a four and a three respectively, severely damaging the score. Delacour could be happy with taking the lead, even if she deserved more then thirty-six points.

As the four walked to the exit, this time in peace, Harry approached Delacour. "Champion Delacour, congratulations on your victory. It sounds to me as if you deserved a better score, but great job nevertheless."

"Z'ank you, 'arry. It is tru', but Veela are not always uelcome 'ere in Britain. It is just somez'ing I have to live wiz'. It sounds like you did well too."

At this point the two had reached the exit, and an exited Moody pulled Harry away. Harry waved a good bye to the Veela as she too was dragged along other exited witches and wizards.

"Potter, not bad. It was a close call, but you really showed heart. Nice job using that tourniquet to slow down the poison, but talk to Snape about it, he should know some better methods of dealing with poison. I was pleased to see you fight. Remember, never surrender, _fo__rtitudine vincimus._ Are you happy with how you did?"

"Mmm, happy enough sir. My leg will remind me of my foolish Gryffindor charge for a few day's. I surprised myself with how rapidly I could freeze them, so I'm pleased with that."

"What do you have against Gryffindor charges? Never mind you snake," Moody snorted, "you showed a strange mixture in your magic though. I have observed it in practice as well. Your power level is not that unusual for a wizard your age, but you don't tire at all when you cast. You should look into that."

"Will do, sir. Maybe Granger would know something about it."

"You trust her, don't you. But this is rather peculiar. I'd be surprised if she will find anything."

"The whole broom incident was a bit embarrassing, Professor," Harry switched the topic.

"I'm sorry, I was not aware of the extra wards that they installed. I seriously thought that you would be fighting dragons. I had overheard Dumbledore murmuring about them. He seems to get more and more senile."

"I should thank you regardless, not for this tip, but for the Auror training you instructed me in. I have been continuing it, and it really helped today."

"My pleasure, kid, I'm glad it helped."

**HPU**

Not much later, Harry had escaped to the lakeside. He wanted to be alone for a little while. He could use the rest. His leg was smarting from the tourniquet wound. He would have to be careful in training for the next few days.

As he was starring across the lake into the distance, Snape came to him. Harry let out a sigh. He would have much rather seen Hermione or Theo.

Ignoring this sentiment, Harry got up, "Professor, I have to thank you for your help in preparing me for the Tournament."

"I wish I saw the same thing, Potter. You attacked the task like a Gryffindor. When one looks at your approach to the task, Johnson used a much more Slytherin way, but didn't executed well. You charged in like a Gryffindor and then had the luck to make it through."

"No, I came upon an unexpected challenge, and constantly adapted to the new challenges. I tried new things until something worked."

"You did not use your brain. You were lucky that your stamina is unbelievable. And that trick of slowing the blood flow. I will have to teach you some more effective methods in the next lesson."

"I hope there are better ones, my leg will bug me for a few days."

"Let that be a reminder to you, you are a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor. But now, come. The House of Slytherin wants to celebrate the runner up of the first task."

The two wandered over to the Slytherin Dungeons. The whole house had assembled. It was a rather low key affair, only semi-formal. Some musicians played music, and a few danced. Harry enjoyed dancing with the Greengrass sisters and Tracy. The house elves had brought in some snacks and butterbeer. Everyone seemed to enjoy their time.

At some point Harry noticed something going on in one of the alcoves. He took a closer look and discovered that several upper years were distributing potions there.

He asked Theo and Daphne about it, "Have you noticed that there are potions over there? It seems an odd time to test your homework."

Daphne laughed, "Those aren't homework, Potter. There is a big market of pleasure potions in the Wizarding world. If you drink them you can have all kinds of experiences, normally with little consequences. But if you take them to frequently, your behavior changes, and many wizards become completely dependent on them."

"Yeah, Harry, it's best to stay away from them. They change your behavior and if you are addicted, they rule your life." Theo chimed in, "Better stick to butterbeer or good old alcohol."

"People get alcoholic too, though?" Harry said.

"Sure, but it requires much more effort then some of those potions." Theo responded, "And you really don't know what you are getting in them either."

They dropped the topic and resumed dancing. Snape's lessons really paid of, Harry thought.

**HPU**

_The First Task:_

_Exciting or Disappointing?_

_Half of Britain's Wizarding p__opulation__ gathered yesterday to witness __the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Most spectators agreed that the four Champions gave a good show. The boy-who-lived surprised all with his endurance, and the French Veela caused controversy with her avian form. But in the end, most were disappointed in a rather lackluster challenge: Amazonian Hive Pixies. The Ministry now is seeking to reassure the public that __the second task will be exiting in itself._

_On the tasks themselves, see p. 2._

_On the Ministries explanation of the task, see p. 5._

_Should Half-bloods compete? see p. 5._

_How violent should it be? See p. 6_

_Where do we go from here? see p. 9._

_**I am not sure about this. It almost seems to easy, but that is the point. The Ministry presses the organizers of the Tournament into making it safe, but it also makes it boring in the process. **_

_**I did enjoy writing it though, it was kind of the first, prolonged action scene in the story. Writing it came rather easily. But how does it read? Any tips on good action sequences? This was also my quickest update yet, and maybe not the most edited. Any mistakes you see?**_

_**I have been reading **_**An Old and New World ****_by Lens of Sanity, a rather funny story about a mildly crazy Harry. He spent a few months in Azkaban and befriends Bellatrix there. Upon his release, he drives the wizarding world insane. _**


	9. Two Different Hunts

**Two Different Hunts**

Harry and Theo both had the bright light of a _lumos_ attached to their wands. It was Sunday, and they had spend the last six hours searching for any sign of Mafalda. For Harry, it had been a nice change of pace, from his regular routine. But it was not a day of rest by any means.

At first, they had both had _lumos_ spells going, to light the way, but after a while, Theo had drained his core too much, and only Harry had provided light. Harry had provided light the entire day, but had felt no strain on his core. Only during lunch did Theo again light his wand.

"Shepherd's pie really is the perfect meal right now." Theo declared.

"Yes, Dobby knew what he was doing, when we asked him for a good meal for our 'hike.'" Harry answered.

"So Harry, I have been thinking, we should head back. I know how much this means to you. You promised to protect Mafalda, and now she disappeared. But we need to get back by supper time. I still need to do my charms homework. And we have been going down hill for the last five hours. It's noon right now, if we don't head back now, we won't make it. It's going to be harder uphill. I mean we are already tired, but we need to trek back up."

"Yeah, five hours of searching is fine. Can't say, I am too surprised that we did not find her. I mean why would we be so lucky to find her on our first hunt? Still disappointing. Lets head back."

They sat in a long tunnel. Really, it did not look to different form ninety-five percent of the tunnels that they had traversed today. It was dark, but it was dry and it was warm. Some of the tunnels had not been dry, and there were a few spots where there had been traps, or where it was more like a cave than a tunnel, but for the most time, it had been exactly like this. A regular tunnel with forks every mile or so. Or rooms that they had to check.

Countless rooms.

Some rooms had traps inside of them. Other rooms had strange, unique furniture. One had an art gallery. Another was filled with strange tools. There was one where one entire wall looked like it was one big window, overlooking New York. Another room was lit by a strange magical fungi. It was so bright, that the whole room was filled with both magical and regular plants. Harry had to admit, if it had not been a search for Mafalda, he would have loved to look at all the strange phenomena. They were quite fascinating.

There had been several times when Harry had been very exited. There were actual dungeons in the Dungeon! All in all, they had found seven rooms that were clearly made to contain prisoners. In two you could see runes all over the walls. Theo had suggested that they were there to negate any magic from being used in the cells. Indeed, as soon as Harry stepped into those cells, his _lumos_ would extinguish. In one of the cells, they had found a skeleton, but no trace of Mafalda anywhere.

The result of this trek was rather disappointing, but it was what it was.

"You know, Theo, I wonder how long ago, another Slytherin student has been down here?"

"Mmm… hard to tell. Some of these rooms would be great to visit just for the sake of them. Do you know if there is a map or any record of all these rooms."

"I don't know. I tried to make a map as we go, but it is really difficult to get the three dimensional nature of tunnels right." Harry showed Theo his work. It was not pretty, but it seemed to have documented their trek accurately. "I want to avoid double checking all these rooms."

"Makes sense. If we find Mafalda, we can still come back to the coolest rooms."

"We could be tour guides!"

Theo laughed at that.

Quickly after that they headed back up.

**HPU**

Walking up the long tunnels, was less fun then going down them. But at least they were now only half an hour away from Harry's room.

"Look at this statute, is that Slytherin?" Harry asked.

"Could be," Theo answered, "I remember it from this morning. I checked that alcove already, nothing there."

"It's interesting, this statue of him is much kinder. He doesn't look as angry as in the Chamber of Secrets. In the chamber he had to look 'in command,' I guess."

"So that really is him? Great man, he stood up for his believes, even against his friends."

"Doing that is really hard, you know?"

"I have a former Death Eater as a father. Yes, I know."

"How far from the dueling arena was that statue, do you know?"

"I think it should be pretty soon. Thank Merlin."

Their brisk march of the morning had slowed down to a more measured meander by now. The way up had slowed down additionally, because they realized that not all rooms advertised their presence. Half way up Theo had hit a statue of a troll with a stunner. This caused the statue to step back, and reveal a trap door. The room below had been a potions lab at one point.

When they realized this, they had started to inspect all statues and any other feature that stood out. They had only found two more hidden rooms.

It was rather distressing. How could they know how many rooms they had missed. Even just a simple notice-me-not would hide a room almost completely. At the level that they were at, they could not sense the magic behind the hiding mechanisms.

Harry felt rather hollow about their search.

As the two tired explorers left the 'deeper' dungeons, Harry's gaze fell on Isolde Greengrass. He had not seen her in a while, and he had wanted to ask her about Mafalda's disappearance.

"Hi, Greengrass, could I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure, Potter."

"Theo and I have been searching for Weasley. She is missing. When have you seen her last?"

"I saw her on the night you were made champion. You know, we were celebrating. The next day she was missing."

"What have you done about it?"

"Well, I talked to Daphne about it, we ended up going to Snape. He thanked us for our concern, and said that the staff is already aware of the problem."

"That's what I did at first. But they didn't do anything."

"Yeah, so we wrote our father about it. A few day's later we got an owl from our uncle, the Lord Greengrass, commanding us to not get ourselves involved with this matter."

"He can just tell you what to do?" Harry was surprised.

"Of course, he is the head of the family. If he thinks that it is for the good of the family to do something, he can tell his family what to do."

"And if you were to disobey him, to help a friend?"

"Well, depending on the head, he could go so fat as to throw you out of the family. Since I am just beginning Hogwarts, this would leave me basically orphaned, and unable to learn magic."

"What about your father? Can't he do anything?"

"My father doesn't care about pureblood supremacy as much, he is more neutral. But he probably does not think a Weasley is worth getting on the bad side with his older brother."

"So you are basically unable to help your friend."

"I have been searching the whole castle with Astoria and some of our friends. It hasn't helped, but I don't know what else to do." Isolde's eyes became teary.

**HPU**

Not half an hour later they reached the inhabited part of the Dungeon. After a refreshing shower and a nice dinner, Harry was now looking for a different sort of pray. In only a few days, he would need a date for the Triwizard Tournament dance. He still had not asked anyone out, to be his date.

"Hermione, … as Slytherin Champion, I am obligated to go to the Yule Ball … I need to find a partner for the ball … would you be willing to come to the ball with me?" Harry stammered. Damn, that had come out completely wrong. He didn't want to go out with her just because he had to. He wanted to, because of Hermione. But things had gone wrong with them, since … well, since the start of this year.

"No, Harry I can't help you there. I found already a date who would like to go with me, no obligations." Hermione courtly replied, and left.

Harry had banked on going with Hermione. Who else would he go out with. Who did she go out with?

Harry sighed. What would he do now? His friendship with Hermione was in a rocky spot right now. She was clearly upset about his secrets, he wished he could talk to her about the Occlumency lessons, and he still needed to find a date for the Yule Ball. Who else could he ask?

**HPU**

Harry roamed the castle, since he had no friends apart from Hermione and Theo, he also had no other female friends. Whom could he ask? Someone would have to be willing to go out with one of the four Triwizard Champions.

He wandered down the main hall. As it happened, Katie Bell was walking into the direction of the Gryffindor Tower.

He at least knew her. She was one of the great Gryffindor Chaser trio. The three of them were a real challenge to the Slytherin Quidditch team. If he asked her they would have something to talk about, at least.

And she certainly was pretty. She was athletic, and it top form. Harry had to admit, any fit girl automatically was prettier in his view. They were more defined and often more slender then others.

And unlike the other Gryffindors, she had never harassed him, in these past months. They seemed to respect each other, as competitors often do.

Taking a breath to steady himself he followed her and caught up to her a minute later.

"'Lo, Katie, how are you today."

"Harry, things are going all right. How about yourself?"

"I was just looking for you." Harry 'bent the truth', "I am in need of a date for the Yule Ball, and I thought of you. Would you be willing to go on the Ball as my date?"

"It's sweet of you to think of me, but I have to say no. I can't do that to Angelina. You know I am one of her best friends. I could not possibly go out with her competition. I hope you understand."

Harry swallowed. Another no.

"I see. I hope you have a good time anyway."

**HPU**

Not a minute later Harry came upon Ginny Weasley. Mafalda's cousin, Harry cursed himself right now, he should be looking for her, instead he was on the hunt for a date for that stupid ball. He had saved her two years ago. If that was not a good introduction, he knew not what else is.

And she did have a splendid body too. Like Katie Bell, she was very fit. Her figure was just forming, but her body already showed the 'Prewett accessories' of her mother.

"Hi, Ginny. Look, I was looking for you. I am wondering if you would go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry, but I already have a date. I am going with my boyfriend, Michael Corner. I hope you find someone."

**HPU**

On the way back to the Slytherin Dorms, Harry ran into Cho Chang. He did not know her too well, but she was a terrific seeker, almost as good as Ginny. He had noticed her behind before. It did not distract him enough to loose during a Quidditch match, but it was distracting. Hermione had complained that he stared at her. But now Hermione was going out with someone else. Ha, he would show her.

He approached Cho.

"Hi Cho, I was looking for you. Would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"I'm sorry Harry, Cedric Diggory already asked me, and I agreed."

…

"Maybe in the future?" She asked him.

That was a nice idea, but what good would do that to him now?

**HPU**

Harry returned to the Slytherin Dungeons. When he entered the dueling area, he was surprised to only find Daphne Greengrass there.

This was the opportunity. He knew her fairly well. She had always been too aloof to bully him. Closer association with the Ice Queen could only be good. She was sure to be a center of influence in the House at some point in the future.

"Hello Greengrass, I was thinking of you. You see, I am looking for a date for the Yule Ball. Would you accompany me as my date?"

Daphne bowed slightly: "I am honored to be considered by you. I am afraid, however, I have to say no. Slytherin is not ready for the full Potter-Greengrass alliance. I am sure we will find this in the future, but for now we have to be discreet. I also don't think we could be an item."

What was that supposed to mean? Potter-Greengrass alliance?

Harry sighed. Zero of four girls wanted to go out with him. And all for such strange reasons.

**HPU**

Harry walked towards the Ravenclaw Tower. He wanted to ask Hermione about some homework in Charms. It was due tomorrow, so he could not wait. He had been distracted all day. First the search for Mafalda, and then this disaster.

When he was waiting in front of the tower door, Luna Lovegood passed by. He knew her, she had to say yes. Hermione had spoken of her several times. She was bullied severely. Maybe this would be nice for her. And she was rather beautiful, in a sort of otherworldly way.

"Hi Luna, I was looking for you. I was wondering if you would go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"Harry that is very nice of you. I will be all right. I don't want to go between you and Hermione. You should ask her."

And she was gone. HE HAD ASKED HERMIONE! Why would no one go out with him!

And what did Luna know about them that he didn't?

**HPU**

Harry spied Fleur coming down the corridor. She smiled at him. Her smile really was pretty. Not as pretty as Hermione's, but up there for sure. And they did have a good rapport together. Being Champions had given them a connection. Maybe he would try. One more rejection could not hurt that much.

"Hello Fleur, how are you today."

"'arry, zings could be better.

"Oh, what is going on."

"No'zing special. I _juste _miz my leetle sister. She ees verie sweet. You' would like her."

"I'm sorry Fleur. Maybe I can distract you. Would you like to go for a little walk. You can tell me all your favorite things about France."

"Z'at is sweet of you, 'arry. You leed ze way."

For the next twenty minutes the two Triwizard Champions just walked random paths on the grounds. It was very relaxing to Harry.

When Harry noticed that they were alone in the hall way, he stopped Fleur.

"Fleur, I know you don't want to have a boy drooling over you, especially not one so much younger then you. But, just as friends, would you go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"'arry, what do you meen just as friends? You don't want more from me?"

"Fleur, you are one of the most beautiful girls in Hogwarts right now, …"

"One of ze? 'arry, 'oo is more beautiful. Have you asked her?"

"Yes, I have, but things are not going well with us right now. So, I just want to be friends with you, and as Triwizard Champion I need a date. I thought you might enjoy having a friend along, instead of some fan boy."

"Ok, 'arry. I am looking forward to it."

"Great, I promise you will have a good time!"

_**A.N. **__**I love mines and caves, so the Slytherin Dungeon are really cool to me. There will be more of that.**__**T**__**h**__**e last part **__**was more of a little j**__**oke**__** in between. **__**Maybe too cheesy? **__**Hope you enjoyed it anyway. **_


	10. Winter Holidays

**Winter Holidays**

Outside the frost had taken over. It snowed regularly, and now that the final examinations of the term were over, many students spent hours outside, enjoying the winter wonder land. They build snow castles and fought epic snow ball battles. Often entire houses were involved, leading to snow ball battles of epic proportions. At other times, they sledded down the hillside from the castle to the lake. Others ice skated on a little pond. The big lake never froze.

Harry on the other hand was not done yet. Today was Friday, defense day. Tuesday was Occlumency day, which had gone rather well.

He was sitting in front of Snape again. His head of house had demanded that he continue his extra studies through the holidays. Thus, while he really rather celebrate the end of the term, by having fun in the snow, he was stuck here in his room.

He did not complain, it would not help. Snape would only get more annoyed then he usually was.

"Since it was the end of the term, I felt it was appropriate to check the standings, and your place in them. I think you will be rather pleased with them." Snape handed him a parchment. On it were listed his classes, his current grade and his ranking within his class. His year in Hogwarts had forty two students.

"You will note that you have significantly improved in all classes, even in potions, for which you have no talent whatsoever."

"… Wow, in Transfiguration, I moved up to ninth." Harry exclaimed.

"A dramatic improvement. But look at the last class."

"Number two in DADA!" Harry looked up and down, between Snape's always expressionless face and the parchment.

"And you should be number one, if we only looked at practicals."

"May I ask who is number one?" Harry suddenly realized that there was at least a trace of competitiveness in him.

"It is my understanding that in all classes, that she takes, but Herbology and Potions, Hermione is number one."

"Watch out Hermione, soon enough you will be number two in three classes." Harry grinned.

"That is the response I was hoping for." Snape drawled. "Since we can see that our time together has had positive results, I thought it would be good to give us both a little rest."

'Do wonders never cease?' Harry marveled.

"Provided you promise to continue your routine during the holidays, and keep up in your studies of Occlumency, Transfiguration, Charms and DADA, I would propose that we will not meet in the next two weeks."

"That sounds reasonable, sir."

"Keep it up." Snape got up and left the room. His expression could not be described as joyful, but somehow it was more pleased then normal.

Harry darted out of the room, barely stopping to pick up jacket, cap and gloves. He had yet to learn how to ice skate.

**H****PU**

The end of the term had stirred up the halls of Hogwarts an unusual amount. Ordinarily, the students were wild for a day after the last examinations, and then most boarded the Hogwarts Express, and left. This year almost all fourth through seventh years, as well as a sizable group of third years had remained at the castle. And instead of calming down with time, the stir had only intensified in the past three days.

Now on the first Tuesday of the Holidays, the hallways had calmed somewhat. Instead, the stir had moved to the dormitories, where wizards and witches alike fretted over last minute nerves.

Harry was fairly calm. He did not worry too much about his robes. Having to do the opening dance, however, was a bit unnerving. He was now waiting for the Deputy-Headmistress to let them enter. The other Champions and their respective dates had already arrived. Fleur hand he were a pair, Krum had brought a Beauxbatons girl, that Harry did not know, and Angelina had brought Fred Weasley.

They just nodded at each other in greeting, as they had little time.

"Champions, you will process into the great hall momentarily …" Professor McGonagall explained.

After a quick explanation, the three pairs processed into the great halls. There were some cheers, and a few flashes, but Harry was relieved that it only lasted a moment, until they got to their table, and dinner was served.

Harry and Fleur talked at first talked about random topics, small talk one could say. How the snow was beautiful, one thing that Beauxbatons did not generally get, and how the end of the term had rushed upon them. Then they shifted the conversation to the upcoming task.

"Do you have any idea what the second task could be?" Harry asked.

"Really, I 'ave non idea. Zey 'ave not given us a 'int. I looked at my ring. Zere 'ase to be a reson for it, non?"

"I guess that is the only clue we have. Not that it tells us much. Mine has what could be a stamp with various symbols. A Slytherin snake, Hogwarts cress and the Triwizard Wand emblem. How about you?"

"Just ze same, with Beauxbatons crest instead of 'ogwarts."

"How do you prepare, for the unknown?"

"Hoho, using our date to spy on me, sneaky, mon ami." Suddenly Fleur's competitive side flared up.

"Fine, I won't share my secrets either then. Not like you need them, going by the first task."

"I zink it is time for ze first dance." Fleur abruptly ended the conversation. Indeed, they had to open the dance floor.

Harry and Fleur, together with the other Champions had the first dance, and then the party really started. Harry danced with many different girls, from all houses. He did not regard the regular relationships, so he even shared a dance with Parkinson and Bulstrode.

After a while, Harry went to the corner and took a breather, he had been dancing continuously for at least the last hour. It was time to rest for a moment. Besides it was kind of fun watching the other dancers.

Harry looked over to Hermione. She had only danced with Ron Weasley tonight. That had been the only blemish of the night. He had hoped to just get one dance in with her, but she had only had eyes for Ron, as far as he could tell.

As he was thinking about this, an older Hufflepuff student came by. Harry had never spoken to him before, he didn't even know his name.

"All going well, mate?" the Hufflepuff asked.

"More or less." Harry would rather not talk to the guy.

The Hufflepuff nervously looked around, checking if anyone was watching them. Then he shoved a small clear flask closed with a cork to Harry, "Here, this will give you the craziest trip ever. First one's free. Find me if you want more."

Without another word, the guy vanished into the crowd. Harry took a closer look at the flask and noticed a neon blue almost glowing potion inside. The flask was tiny, there could only be a table spoon at most in it. Harry did not know what to do with it, so he just put it into a pocket and went back to watching the dancing crowd.

A few minutes later a exuberant Cho Chang approached him. Harry was happy to let strange questions fade, and asked for a dance with her. This led to another hour of dancing for him.

Around eleven, the great hall began to empty. Many of the couples went to more private locations. Harry and Fleur decided it would be a good time to call it quits. Fleur thanked him for a delightful time, and they had wished each other 'Marry Christmas and a good new year.'

Harry walked back to his room. It had been a good day. After all the dancing lessons in the Slytherin house classes, Harry felt like a fish in water on the dance floor.

But he was also relieved that the dance was done. It meant that his regular quiet time over Christmas would finally start. In the morning an special run of the Hogwarts Express would allow most students to return to their families, just in time for Christmas.

Now it was only a matter of hours until the castle would be empty, and then he could again search for Mafalda.

**HPU**

It was a bit unnerving at first, flying alone in the dark. Even with the light Harry used, there were shadows behind every rock, and the light only went so far, until it faded into the darkness. While Harry's _lumos_ was bright enough, that he could rely on it alone, but without a second wand free, he did not want to. So, during the last Hogsmeade trip of the year, he had discovered a small wizarding light. It looked like an old petroleum lamp, but did not need petroleum or a wick. You lit it with a _lumos_ but once it lit, did not require a wand to keep going. There were some convex mirrors attached to it, that made it into a good search light.

He had hung it from his broom. He could not fly as fast as he would have liked. Otherwise he would have run in danger of hitting a wall or something, but he could still go much faster then walking. This way he could reach the last spot in an hour and a half, instead of the three hours it had taken them to reach it last time, when they had walked.

It would not do to search like this, but since he needed to go down to where they had left off from the last search, he did not need to be too careful until then.

It was also good to have a broom with him to avoid the traps that were triggered by stepping on them.

After a little while he reached the end of his last search with Theo. He had to really slow down at that point. He tried to fly slower then walking, and started to examine as much of the nooks and cracks as he could. On occasion he would stop and cast different revealing and unlocking spells he and Theo had found since their last excursion.

If he found a door he would take a peak into the room behind it. Usually only stopping briefly. He would use the revealing and unlocking spells in the rooms too. For the most part the rooms were empty. Sometimes there were various amounts of furniture in various states of repair, but usually it was not much.

Whenever he stopped at a room, he would pull out his parchment on which he would note down the new passages and rooms he found. He tried to store as much as possible in his Occlumency structured mind, but knew that he needed a physical aid.

On occasion, he would have to turn around. Causes for this varied. Some tunnels just ended in a cave in. Others were entirely flooded or became too small to be a viable route. Harry was cautious to not go into spaces that he would have a hard time to come back out of. It would not do to be stuck and lost in addition to Mafalda.

Several times the tunnels looped back, or he chose a fork that led back to an already explored passage. After just half a day, Harry's map showed a complex system of tunnels.

For the most part the tunnels were dry, but on occasion they were very muddy. In some instances they were even flooded. Sometimes there were regular streams. They would come out of a hole in the wall, follow the tunnel for a while, and then disappear again in the wall. Harry was very glad to be using his broom then, because otherwise he would have to wade through the water.

Harry noticed a very pretty effect from the puddles of water. When his light shone onto the puddles, it reflected all over the walls, making strange shapes, in a rainbow of colors, on the sometimes very rough walls.

For them most part, Harry spent his time flying and exploring very similar looking tunnels, and finding little variation in the rooms or tunnels themselves. Despite this, Harry was never bored. He felt a weird excitement of being so far underground.

Then there were of course the truly exceptional caves that could only be found in a magically saturated environment.

At one point in the first morning of the first day underground, Harry noticed a faint light come through a door he just reached.

He dismounted and placed the broom to his right, next to the door. He held the lamp with his left, and pulled out his wand with his right.

He used the spells he now always used, before entering an unknown room. The spells flowed out like a little stream. Moody would probably not find too much to complain about this spell chain.

The spell chain did not give any warnings of danger. With his right hand, still holding the wand, he opened the door, and peaked into the room. His wand ready to fight any danger.

For a moment, his eyes had to get used to the brighter light inside this cave. He looked up and saw, hanging from the ceiling, countless little stars. It reminded him a bit of a children's bed room ceiling, where glow in the dark stars had been glued to it. But these were no glow in the dark, plastic stars. These here were never in the light to recharge. No their source was entirely magical. There was so many that it was bright as in the morning. Not as bright as a sunny noon, but bright enough to let a lush mountain meadow, grow in this cave. Lots of natural and magical flowers were sown throughout the grass. The wall was more like a cave, then a cut out room. All in all, he was reminded of the cave that Theo and he had discovered the last time they had gone searching.

There was one big difference however. In the center of this cave, there was a fairly large pond. Close to the door, a small waterfall came out of a hole in the wall. On the other end of the pond a small stream left it, and disappeared into the downward sloped cave.

Around the pond, he saw what appeared to be rabbits, but some grew horns like reindeer.

Harry decided to cast a couple more search spells, but came up empty. He took his broom, and flew down along the stream, but after only a few hundred feet, he found that the stream ended and went down a hole.

Harry had an early lunch in this strange cave. The horned rabbits did not bother him. They moved away from him, but did not panic at the sight of a human. He made sure to mark the cave into his map.

After lunch, Harry continued on.

After this the tunnel Harry had followed, went down a spiral staircase. After what must have been several stories worth of turns, the stone stairs changed into metal. The staircase was suddenly not encased by solid granite walls, but by air. It went down several more stories, and ended on the floor of an enormous cave. This was mostly a regular cave, with stalactites and stalagmites forming at the ceiling and the floor respectively. It did contain some stars in the ceiling, but far fewer than in the small cave Harry had just been in. Here, instead of making the cave as bright as the morning, it was more like the stars of the milky-way in the desert, away from light pollution. Denser then most patches of the night sky. Harry could make out the contours of the cave in the faint light.

Here too, Harry searched again, but again he came up empty.

He continued searching for the remainder of the day, but apart from regular rooms, he did not find anything worth noting.

When his internal clock, and a _tempus_ spell told him that it was getting time to sleep, he was in another one of these ordinary rooms. This one had a table and a bare bookshelf, and even a sink. Harry did not test if it would work.

But Harry did not remain in the room for the night. He did not trust the silence that spread throughout the tunnel system. Even though he only had come across the horned rabbits and some reptilian like animals, there was no telling what was in the many dark corners down here.

Instead, Harry cast detection and warning spells thirty feet in both directions of the tunnel. They would wake him up if anything was coming towards him in the night. Then he prepped a little area for the night. His bed was the floor, but he brought some blankets and even a pillow. It was not going to be a five star hotel, but he could make due.

After dinner, he had asked Dobby to give him some things from the kitchen, he reviewed the map. He hoped that doing so would reinforce the map he made in his mind. Then he laid down at tried hard to relax. He had a hard day behind him and so he quickly fell asleep, despite the strange surroundings.

**HPU**

The precautions proved unnecessary, at least for that night. In the morning, Harry woke up, rested enough to tackle the new day.

This new day turned out to be almost the same as the day before. He ended up not going much deeper into the tunnels. There were many more tunnels, leading further down. And Harry noticed that the lower the tunnels, the more they turned into caves, or at least they were less finished. But instead of going into these sketchy looking headings, Harry decided to focus on the levels he had searched the day before. There were yet countless miles of unexplored passages on those levels.

There was one strange moment in the late afternoon. Harry had found nothing, and was getting rather tired, when he came upon something unexpected.

The tunnel he was just in had been without fork or room in probably half a mile. Then Harry hovered over a bottle of butterbeer. A moment later he saw another one, and another. He stopped and in a corner of the tunnel, saw a small pile of butterbeer bottles, and even two bottles of fire whiskey. On the wall he saw twelve names carved into the stone. He did not recognize any of the first names, but noticed several last names. Among the names were a Greengrass, a Bulstrode, a Rosier and two Crouches. At the top of the list it was titled, '_Slytherin Class of 1953'_ and bellow the list, '_BEST CLASS EVER!'_ Harry had to smile. Going by the amount of waste that they had left behind, the class of 1953 had had quite a bit when they wrote that last bit.

Harry looked at the carving for a moment, and decided to place a new inscription below it, _Harry Potter, __1__st__ January 1995._

Harry noted the spot with amusement on his map, and left the piles of bottles behind.

After a few more hours of searching Harry settled down for another night in the dark. He followed the same procedures as the first night, placing alerts in both directions of the tunnel and studding the map of the day.

**HPU**

After the second night, Harry set out to return to the dorms. He was still searching, looking into new headings and passages, but he headed slowly up.

Very early in the morning still in the deepest parts that he had explored, Harry found the last memorable room of this trip. In a way it was the most unusual.

Harry stepped into a room, and immediately noticed that it was completely round, and that its roof was a perfect dome. The dome was a particular bright white, and it reflected a good portion of Harry's light. It made the room brighter then most.

The room contained no furniture, but the floor had a strange drawing. In the center of it, there was a big circle, roughly a dozen feet across. Or rather it was seven concentric circles. Their diameter varied by roughly a foot between the largest and the smallest, with the smallest being about twelve or thirteen feet in diameter. In the center of these circles, a big pentagram was etched.

Harry stepped into the circle, and he could for the first time in his life _feel _the magical potential of a place. His hairs were raised, and his wand started to send sparks. A faint shudder went down his back, but then his body started feeling a pleasant warmness.

Harry's lamp started to flicker, and he quickly took two steps back. He did not want to be stuck down here without light.

Once he was outside the mysterious room, his lamp resumed to operate as it should, and Harry decided to turn around. He would come back down here again with Theo. This room needed further investigation. But right now it distracted from his main mission: Mafalda. So, he noted it down on the map, and went on.

Harry then spend the rest of the day slowly heading upwards.

Nothing of note occurred, and so around ten thirty, well after bed time, Harry made it back to his room. He took a quick shower, and crashed hard. He would worry about studying the next day. Now, only his comfortable bed called.


	11. The Next Step in Legilimency

**T****he Next Step i****n**** Legilimency**

Classes were back in session. This allowed Harry to go back to his regular routine. He had spent practically the entire duration of the holidays in the darkness of the Slytherin tunnels. It had been an exiting if not very fruitful adventure. In a way, it was nevertheless nice to be back among the living.

"I can't believe you were down there for the last two weeks." Theo exclaimed.

"Look here, I made a map of all the tunnels I searched." Harry wanted to show something for all the work. He had not been able to find Mafalda, but the extensive map proved that it was not for lack of trying.

Theo leaned over the map. "Wow, that is awesome, what are all these symbols?"

"These here are the rooms with lighting. I tried to mark down everything I found. Especially if they had any cool feature. This one for example has a stream and some strange animals in it. I wanted to make sure that I could find them again, if need be."

"What about this one, with the pentagram?"

"That was a strange room, my lamp went out. It looked like magic was blocked there or something. Before the light went out, I could see this big circle of seven lines and in the center of it there was a pentagram. I don't know what it was for."

"That must have been a ritual room. Pentagrams are usually used for that kind of stuff. The seven lines denote the strongest category of ritual circles. You see, they can only be build in certain places. Depending on the inherent magic of the precise location, they can strengthen the ritual. Many rituals can only be done at a circle of a given strength."

"Have you ever done such a ritual?" Harry had never heard of this type of magic.

Theo lowered his voice. "The Ministry of Magic has outlawed ritual magic. Many view them as dark magic, since they often involve soul, blood or sacrificial magic. My family has a fifth category ritual chamber in our house. My father taught me about some rituals last summer."

"And the Dungeons has one right there!" Harry pointed onto the map.

"It must be from the time of Salazar Slytherin himself. He was well known to have performed some powerful rituals."

"Is there a ritual we could use to find Mafalda?"

"If there is we would need some of her blood or hair or something. Besides, its super illegal, if we were caught doing that, we could get time in Azkaban." Theo answered. He seemed taken by the idea, despite his negative response.

"I get it, it was just a thought. Searching for Mafalda as we have, seems pointless. It is like searching for a needle in a hey stack. There has to be a better way."

**HPU**

"What we can agree on is that you were too slow. Your physical abilities and casting speed is something of a limit. A limit that can be pushed through various means, mainly practice and some dubious to dark rituals. But a limit nevertheless. But there is another way to improve your reaction time. You can think more efficiently, think faster." Snape summarized their physical practice of two days before. As always there were very little positive observations, but a lot of things to improve. They sat in Harry's room and started Legilimency practice.

"I thought we have been working on this through Legilimency for the past four months?" Harry said, a little frustration seeping through.

"Of course, I am merely talking about another step of Legilimency. One rather difficult one. From now on we will spend part of the time developing your Mind council."

"Sounds interesting, what is it?"

"It's a fascinating approach to using ones mind. In short, it is a method of dividing your mind into independent parts, called developed councilors. You can then task them with problems that you need solved while you can focus on other things."

"But wouldn't make that the individual parts dumber?" Harry asked.

"It would, if you always use your full mental capacity. But in fact we never do. Add to that that the compartmentalization is dynamic, each developed councilor only uses as much as needed for the task, the rest is still available to you."

"Is there no danger in splintering your mind?"

"Quite a bit. It is very easy to lose ones mind, using a mind council." Snape frowned. "I am a bit hesitant to introduce this already to you. Most Legilimens are not ready to even look at this technique until at least a year of Legilimency practice. Most need at least two. But you consistently surprise me in your Legilimency abilities, and since the longer each councilor is developed, the better they become, I will introduce this to you now. Professor Dumbledore also encouraged me to push you to this as soon as possible."

Harry swallowed hard. His Moody alarm bells rung deafeningly in his mind. Was Snape basically setting him up for failure? "I promise to be careful, Professor."

"I hope so." Snape smirked. "I will introduce you to three of my councilors. We will meet in a small chamber I have put up just for this. Therein I will introduce you to some basics of this craft. I also want you to read this manual in the next two weeks."

He took the small, beaten up booklet and scanned the title, _M__ind__ Councilors: __The __Most Fickle and Most Rewarding of __the Mind Arts__,_ by Stephan Rosier_. _Harry wondered, what did fickle mean in this circumstance? He would have to be careful. Constant vigilance and all that…

"Potter, enter." Snape pulled Harry out of his wandering thoughts. Harry looked at Snape.

"_Legilimens," _Harry entered Snap's mind, but was instantly redirected. He was guided into what appeared to be a little bare room. Snape and Harry remained in a corner of the room. In the middle stood a round table, and three people stood around it.

"This is merely an instructional construct. The three councilors you see are each only allotted a nominal amount of my mental abilities. Really they are dunderheads. I have instructed them to find the best excuses to take points from Gryffindor. As you can tell, they came up with very different approaches. This is because they have very different personalities. If you are able to set this up, then this will help you find novel solutions, and aid you in thinking outside the box."

Harry examined the three. One was an old wizard in screaming, purple robes. He had a long white beard and looked to be modeled after Dumbledore. Next to him was a wizard about Snape's age. He wore the same black robes as Snape did but had short brown-red hair. To the right of him was a blond witch in her twenties. She wore more of a Muggle style dress. Rather short and revealing.

They were debating the merits of their respective excuses for taking points from Gryffindors.

Harry asked: "They are not copies of you, but are they based on people you know?"

"When one creates councilors, they can be created completely from scratch or based on some model. It is advisable to make them different enough to not get confused. If you use a model that is too close to someone else, you might get subconsciously confused between who is who. Remember, the councilors develop on their own once you set the initial parameters. You can of course go back and tweak them, but you might not always be aware of how they develop."

"Ideally not use real life models," Harry said, starring at the Dumbledore doppelganger, "got it."

Snape smirked. And shouted: "Intruder alert, help!"

Instantly the three councilors silenced. A moment they were still, looking between Harry and Snape.

Then in a flurry of action, they reacted.

The young witch sprinted at him, while throwing lightning bolts out of her hands. The wizard Snape's age, stood still but hurled basket ball sized glowing things at him.

Nether could hold anything on the Dumbledore look alike.

He brought forth a tornado.

It ripped the ceiling apart, exposing nothing but black emptiness. The debris from the ceiling was redirected by the winds of the tornado at Harry.

Before Harry realized what happened, he was laying on the floor of his chamber.

His head hurt.

He was physically perfectly healthy, but a strong migraine made itself felt.

"What uses have you seen in this little demonstration?" Snape asked as he sneered down.

Harry picked himself up and shakily sat on his chair, from which he had just fallen. "You tasked the three councilors with a little question. I assume there is no restrictions to what you can ask them to do?"

"Mostly, you can't exactly turn your mind into a computer. But otherwise, there are endless possibilities. As long as it is something inside your mind, obviously. What else?"

Harry thought of his time with the Dursleys. "They could be friends?"

"This is one of the pitfalls of the practice. If one is not careful you can stay inside your mind and never do anything. But yes, it can help with loneliness. But that is not what I am trying to teach you."

"You made you councilors attack me, to give me a headache. They are great for your Occlumency defenses."

"Mind councilors are the best Occlumency defense you can have. You can use them for both the search and the expulsion of intruding Legilimens."

"But were they really so stupid as you said? They did wandless magic." Harry questioned.

"They barely used any of my mental capacity. You saw how hard they struggled with the simple task I gave them. They would have had no chance of finding you if you had hid, but in a duel they did not have a challenge. They did not need much knowledge for that. You must remember, we were inside the outer reaches of my mind. I hold all the cards in the hands. That is why they are so good at expulsion. Also, if they were really tasked with expulsion, than if they meant to they could not only cause headaches, but also really harm you mentally and physically. Only the most powerful of Legilimens has a chance against three mind councilors in an open duel."

"Are seeking councilors harder to develop?"

"Very much so. Legilimency specializes in the covert attack of the mind. It takes considerable effort to defend against it. When a search team of councilors is fully active it can take up as much as a third of your mental capacity, or more, to be effective."

Silence fell between them. Harry tried to digest all the information. But, his headache was worsening.

"I think this will be enough for today. I want to stress again, however, this is very fickle magic. We will go over different components that factor into this, over the next year or so. Do not attempt to develop a councilor until I give you the go ahead. Trying it too soon could be fatal. Am I clear?"

"Crystal clear, Professor."

**HPU**

A few days later, Harry sat, once again, in the great hall. He was eating his dinner, with Theo to his right.

In stormed Director Crouch Sr. with Percy in tow. Harry had to laugh, the manner with which Percy waltzed into the hall reminded Harry of last year, when he had been head boy. He seemed to think that he owned the place. As head boy this behavior had made at least some sense, but as lackey to a Ministry official it was out of place.

"May I interrupt your meal for a moment. I have an announcement." Crouch proclaimed, using the _sonorus_ charm. He did not seem particularly concerned about interrupting the meal of the students. "I have business for the Ministry, that will take me away from Hogwarts for the next week. Unfortunately this will mean that I will not be able to come to the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. In order to not leave one of the judges chairs empty, I have decided to promote Mr. Percy Weasley to Deputy-Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation." First Crouch started clapping, and then everybody followed suit, a bit more subdued. Percy thrust his chest out like a peacock.

After a few moments, the tumult settled down.

Not long after this announcement, Harry saw the Weasley twins get up. He was finished with dinner as well, so he decided to see if they knew more about Percy and Mafalda. Theo followed suite.

"For a Weasley, he seems to rise rather rapidly." Theo commented as they were leaving the great hall.

"I'm curious. Everyone knows Percy is ambitious. And as head boy last year he showed how well he would fit with the Ministry. Maybe he will be able to do something about Mafalda. The Weasley twins just left lunch, maybe they will tell us more."

In the big hallway outside the great hall, was quite a tumult. Students going and coming to lunch. But the Weasley twins were easily found. Two tall redheads are hard to overlook.

"Weasleys!" Harry shouted.

The two halted and turned simultaneously inwards. Harry wondered if they practiced that.

"Our favorite fourth year Slytherin." The one on the left said.

"Are you scared how Percy will judge your next performance?" The one on the right said.

"About that, how is he Deputy-Director already?" Theo threw in. "He was at Hogwarts last year, and now … this."

"Mum wont stop fawning over him."

"He sprouts around, thinks he know everything…"

"… and everybody. 'It's who you know not what.'"

"But he must be good at his job for him to rise so quickly." Theo interrupted the upcoming rant of the twins.

"Percy always was the perfect mix of perfectionism, work ethic and ass licking to succeed in the Ministry." The one on the left answered.

"And it looks like Crouch is one of those who likes yes-men under him." The one on the right said.

"Has Percy used his position 'in the know' to push for helping Mafalda?" Harry interjected. "My search this Christmas has not been successful."

"You misunderstand. Percy has not been promoted because he fixes problems."

"Even if that problem happens to be a missing student."

"Who happens to be his cousin."

"No, he is just good at schmoozing."

"And the people he is schmoozing don't want there to be a missing student."

"Therefore there is no missing cousin in Percy's world."

"If a tree falls in the forest, but nobody saw it fall…"

"And that is why Percy is going to judge you on your performance in the next task."

Percy was the fifth judge for the second task. Who would have thought. That reminded Harry, only a few more days and it was there. With all the searching for Mafalda, he had let that slide a bit to the back burner.

Harry was a bit nervous. The first task had been a close call. He had barely made it. But the wizarding public had decried it as too easy. Harry had no doubt that this task would be harder. At the same time he was calm enough to forget about it. Before the first task he would have never been distracted enough to forget how soon the task would be.

He had prepared hard. Even with Snape's constant nagging, Harry could tell, he was getting better. His reaction times had improved. His strategic thinking was more Slytherin. He could not see how his stamina could get any better.

Harry did not fear the next task.

**HPU**

Defense was almost over.

"A Potter, you have not faced my _imperio _in a while. Who rests rusts, as they say. _Imperio"_

Harry felt the pleasant sensation of the curse landing on him. He felt the urgent need to wash the black board non-magically.

Knowing what to look for made resisting the curse almost easy, Harry thought. He shrugged mentally.

"With all respect, you can wash the black board yourself, Professor."

"Did it even take hold, Potter?"

"I felt the curse come over me, but I didn't let it settle."

"Well done, At least in this regard, you have little room to improve. Five points Slytherin. And stay alert tomorrow. Class dismissed."

_**AN. **__**It's been a while. I had stuff to do, but I should still have found time to do this. I must admit I discovered this game, OpenTTD and building a train netwook suddenly kind of ate a lot of my time. I am back though, my goal is to update at least once a week for the foreseeable future. Things should pick up now **__**as well**__**.**_

_**A **__**note on Legilimency vs Occlumency. I know, Legilimency is the art of knowledge and Occlumency is the defense of the mind (see Ch. **__**2). It seems in my story the term Legilimency has become bigger. I have used it as an umbrella term for the mind arts, and exercises relating to them. So, I guess Legilimency in a strict sense still refers to the technical definition, but it is often used more loosely, as a term referring to the mind arts as a whole. This kind of bugged me when I was writing this chapter**__**, but I have used it like that consistently, so I didn't want to change it**__**. **__**Also, for some reason, Legilimency practice sounds better then Occlumency practice in my ears.**_

_**Next up, the Second task.**_


	12. The Second Task

**The Second Task**

Harry held his trusted Firebolt in his right hand. The four champions had been informed in the morning to bring their broom to the shore of the lake. Along the shore, some seating had been erected. Many more just sat on the rocky beaches and grass fields that lined the lake, on their own blankets and chairs. Many held omnioculars.

Unlike the first task, in which each champion had to master the task separately, this time the task would be a race and all four champions would compete at the same time. In the middle of the lake, the event organizers had taken their familiars and had hung them in cages on a floating, horizontal bar.

The challenge was that at the end of the hour, all four familiars would drop into the lake. Since they were in cages, they would drown, even if they could fly like Harry's owl Hedwig. This task was very reliant on them being good fliers. Harry wondered if they had designed this task after they learned that the champions would be three Quidditch players and a Veela.

But it would not be enough to simply fly across the lake, Harry could do that in five minutes. The border of the whole lake had been magically barred off, and now there were various beasts flying around. Occasionally they would mess with each other, but they were mostly calm for now. Harry just knew that as soon as the champions got in range, they would be the target of them all.

Harry saw several swarms of Amazonian Pixies fly about. But not only that, there were Griffins and Hippogriffs in the air. He also noticed some Thestrals. Had all of them seen death? Harry wondered how a champion who could not see them would be able to defend against them.

Bagman was clapped his hands, "All right, champions as you can see we are ready for the second task. You are to rescue your familiar from certain death. The original task was only hindered by the Pixies. But countless witches and wizards have written letters to the Ministry, and informed us that they were outraged at the trivial task." They had not been forced to participate, Harry thought. "They want to see epic feats of magic, so we added some more dangerous beasts. As you can see you will have to fend off Griffins, Hippogriffs and Thestrals as well."

Johnson raised her hand. "Sir, what are Thestrals?" That answered that question.

"Maybe your tutor will be able to help you, I can't be aiding you. I'm sorry." The grin on Bagman's face did not convince anyone of his sincerity. "Your tutors will take you to your separate starting platforms. You will start from there, and return there once you got your familiar."

Snape nodded at Harry and the two were ready to mount their brooms to do just that.

"But one more thing. To make it a bit more fun, Director Crouch and I have agreed to allow you to attack each other. Good luck."

Harry did not like the sound of that.

But without any more instructions forthcoming, the four champions and their tutors mounted their brooms and headed to their respective starts.

"Potter, I know you can fly, I want you to race for your owl, race back, and ignore all obstacles as much as you can, and don't start playing around with the other champions." Snape instructed as they flew.

"That was my thinking too."

"These theatrics don't really matter, if you are quickest you are bound to get a good score regardless."

Not much later, they arrived at a floating platform, hovering twenty yards in the air, a few paces from the shore. At the shore a crowd had gathered, waving green flags and chanting "Potter." While there were spectators spread around the whole lake, Harry could see from up here that at five locations there were bigger crowds. Four of them were by the champions starting platforms, and the fifth was by the judges stand.

Harry stepped onto the platform, but remained on his broom. Snape flew back to the judges stand.

"One more minute." The voice of Bagman carried across the lake.

Harry saw that the other three tutors had reached the judges stand.

"Get ready."

Harry breathed in and out slowly.

"Set."

He steeled himself and leaned into the broom.

"GO!"

Harry took of.

The lake was not in any way round, rather the shore formed countless bays and coves. its furthest distance across was roughly two miles. The four starting platforms were situated so that each champion had to traverse a mile to reach their familiar.

Harry's Firebolt could go from zero to one-fifty in ten seconds. If he could accelerate he would be at the center of the lake in lest then thirty seconds. But as soon as he left the platform, all beasts in range converged on him.

There was no chance of going top speed. Instead Harry had to slalom around the various beasts. He left the Pixies behind quickly. Even going a moderately slow was to fast for them. If only Moody's plan would have worked in the first task.

The bigger beasts were not so easily shaken off.

But even going slowly and constantly changing directions, a mile was not far for a broom. So only a few minutes later Harry was in the center.

Harry was not the first, Krum and Fleur, in her avian form, were already there. Johnson was not far behind.

Here it proved itself to be a bit harder than Snape had made it sound. Harry could not just pick up Hedwig's cage in flight. Harry's hand would be seriously injured if he smacked it into the wires of the cage at the speed he was going. It was also tied to the pole with some string, so he had to slow down to cut it regardless.

So he slowed down as he approached the beam. But this allowed a griffin to catch up to him. With its sharp fore claws, it tried to snatch at Harry's broom tail.

Its sharp claws were inches from the frail broom bristles.

The millimeter thick bristles of a Firebolt were engraved with countless runes. They were what allowed professional sport-brooms to outperform regular mass produced brooms. They were generally rather sturdy, and could be bent with only a little loss of control. This could easily be straightened out with a proper broom service kit. If one bristle was ripped, however, the broom would be worse then a wild Hippogriff.

Harry barrel rolled out of reach of the Griffin, avoiding this fate for now.

The other champions had similar problems at the moment. Only Fleur in her avian form was able to get to her familiar, a white hawk. She was pecking with her beak at the rope that held the cage.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Harry saw that Krum did not like this.

He threw a cutting curse at Fleur.

It hurled towards her, and she could not hear it coming, with the noise of her own pecking drowning out much of what occurred around her.

Lucky for her, a Hippogriff flew in the way of the curs. Its tough hide was magically resistant. The curse was nevertheless strong enough to make a long, deep cut. Krum was not kidding around. The Hippogriff screeched in a strange half horse, half eagle manner. Something between a screech and a neigh.

The Hippogriff charged Krum. Krum did not hesitate for a second for a second. He nonchalantly doubled down with a bone breaking curse. It hit the wing of the charging Hippogriff, which promptly crashed into the lake below.

And as far as the champions were concerned, the first spell had been cast.

Suddenly the air was filled with different glowing colors.

Harry tried to dodge as much as he could without getting drawn into the fireworks.

Time was ticking.

For the time being all he could do was circle around the center, avoiding both the various flying beasts and his violent competitors.

The three of them had begun to really go after each other. Fleur had become enraged by Krum, and had burst into flames. Krum was throwing very colorful hexes at her. She could not respond in kind. Instead she charged at him and hurled balls of fire when she was close enough. The fire leaped from the tip of her wings when she made particularly forceful downward strokes.

Johnson was also beginning to be involved in the exchange. She had slowed down to get at her familiar, a beautiful black cat, but had been caught by one of Fleur's fire balls.

She had retaliated.

Harry continued to circle the dueling trio. As he did so, he noticed that the spell fire had pushed the flying beasts away. Particularly Fleur's fire caused panic among them.

How could he use this to his advantage?

The altercation between his competitors kept the beasts away, the previous hurdle to get Hedwig back. But now Krum, Johnson and Fleur blocked the way by their spell fire. If he was hit by some of the worse spells, he would be out, and Hedwig would be lost.

The trio was constantly changing position, throwing curses and dodging or shielding from enemy curses.

Harry had to pay close attention to their activity, otherwise a stray curse would hit him.

Then he noticed the last spell that came from Krum: it was the unmistakable red of the cutting spell.

'That's it!' He thought. It would be risky, but he had practiced aiming for some time now. He could do it if he was still enough.

Harry slowed down and began hovering a good ten yards from Hedwig's cage. He chose his spot, so that when he had caught his owl, he could go straight for his own platform.

He would have to dive as soon as he cast, in order to catch her, before she disappeared into the lake.

Just then he noticed that Johnson had played a different risky game. She had been slowly getting closer to her cat as she was fighting, and now had reached her. Since she was not in avian form, she simply opened the door of the cage and grabbed the cat.

The poor cat meowed piteously, and wrapped her paws around the broom shaft. It clung to the broom for dear life.

Off was the Gryffindor champion.

This left Fleur and Krum to battle it out. Their fighting became even more frantic as they tried to duplicate Johnson's tactic. But they also really did not want to let the other reach their familiar, so they stalled each other.

Harry breathed slowly, 'Okay, game time. Can't let her get too much ahead.'

He steadied again, and did the downward swish of the cutting curse several times. Dry runs so to speak.

"_Caedere!__" _He timed it perfectly. The curse flew and hit the rope. It struck, and Hedwig began to fall.

Harry didn't think, he let his seeker instincts take over and dove.

He pushed all he had into the broom.

The surface of the lake got at him, but so did Hedwig. Ten yards from the lake, Hedwig and Harry intercepted.

Harry's hand stung a little from the impact, when he grabbed the cage, but he was able to get a firm grip of it.

Harry pulled the broom up and veered away, and towards his platform. He was still going down too rapidly. His left knee scraped the surface. The robes were instantly drenched. His knee stung from the impact of hitting the water so hard. The wet robes dragged him down.

He was able to pull up and accelerate again. He was able to convert much of the downward momentum into forward movement anyway, and ignored his knee for the time. Madam Pomfrey's magic would take care of it later.

As soon as Harry was closer to the shore then to the middle of the lake, the beasts tried to attack him again.

They were not fast enough.

He did not slow down until he reached the platform. There he broke hard, came to a halt right above it. Harry stepped down onto it, and now really felt the knee injury. He could not put any weight on it.

Fortunately for him, he did not have to. As soon as he was on the platform, it began to drift down and to the shore.

As he reached the shore, he realized that the crowd was cheering, He could not really decipher what they were shouting, the adrenaline in his system was still pumping. He tried to step of the still floating platform, but did not manage to do anything more then stumble forward.

Before he hit the floor, Snape and Theo were at his side. Snape quickly levitated Harry, and Theo picked up his Firebolt.

Without a comment they went to the infirmary tent.

**HPU**

Madam Pomfrey fixed his knee in no time. She did complain that Harry again got injured.

Harry made no comment. He just lay on top of the bed and relaxed. Now that he was not in pain and still, he could feel how tired he was. Drowsiness washed over him. He might have dozed off.

Some time later, Harry did not know how much time had passed, Snape stood at the end of the bed. "Come, Potter, the judges are ready to give you points."

Harry stepped out of the tent, and saw that however much time had passed while his wounds were taken care of, it had been enough to gather many of the spectators around the judges tribune.

Unlike last time, where the four champions had stood together, at the center of the arena, this time they were spread out among the crowd. Harry followed Snape to a section of Hogwarts students, mostly Slytherins, but also some Ravenclaws.

When Snape stopped, Harry stopped as well. He turned to the podium. Theo appeared to his right. Harry was disappointed that Hermione was not here with him. And he felt almost guilty that Mafalda was not here. Surely she would cheer him on, if he had found her.

"Esteemed witches and wizards, what a day!" Director Bagman once again took charge of the judges. This time there was no Crouch to counter his exuberance. "We saw some of the finest flying outside of professional Quidditch, we saw an areal battle, and we saw the British champions beat the visitors. What a day!"

Both visiting headmasters rose in protests, but Bagman was not to be dissuaded. "Ms. Delacour once again took advantage of her vela abilities, and initially looked to build up her lead of the first task. After a malicious curse by Mr. Krum, a flying fight broke out between them and Ms Johnson. And what a fight it was. I think the dueling circles should take note, areal combat could be an exiting addition to ordinary dueling. It looks like Mr. Krum and Ms. Delacour are very evenly matched in this kind of competition, because they neutralized each other. Ms. Johnson took advantage of the situation, even before Mr. Potter. She was able to free her familiar during the fight and nothing could stop her after that. Mr. Potter followed her quickly and used a impressively aimed cutting curse, and a almost reckless dive for the same results.

"This left our visiting champions at a stalemate, they were not bring their duel to a conclusion, and were forced to agree to a ceasefire minutes before their familiars would have fallen to their death. Mr. Krum was then able to beat Ms Delacour to the finish line, as her avian form was slightly handicapped in finishing the task.

"I want to remind you again, to not only evaluate the finishing time, but also the manner with which each champion completed the task. As the four started simultaneously, this time we will evaluate them in the reverse order of completion. Ms. Delacour first."

As in the first task, the judgments of the different judges were quite varied.

Both Fleur and Krum received twenty-seven points. In Fleur's case, she received mostly mid-range scores, but Karkaroff decided that for her slow time she did not deserve anything better than a two. Krum got slightly lower scores, but Karkaroff gave him a six. This caused quite a stir with the French spectators. And really with most males in the audience…

Harry's performance was given mostly eights, give or take a point. Karkaroff was the outlier. From him Harry only received a five. This resulted in a score of thirty-seven. Better then Fleur's first place score in the first task! For Johnson's fastest rescue time, she earned a forty-two. Like Harry she received high scores from everyone but Karkaroff.

"There we have it!" Bagman boomed. "This gives us unexpected results. Adding the scores from the first two tasks we get the over all leader. The grand totals are fifty-eight for Mr. Krum, fifty-nine for Ms. Johnson, sixty-three for Ms. Delacour and sixty-eight for Mr. Potter."

The Slytherin contingent erupted in jubilation.

For the moment it was as after Quidditch matches. Potter was king. He was hoisted on some shoulders and carried to the Dungeons. An 'impromptu' party would have started here, just like after Quidditch victories, but Snape put a stop to that.

He insisted that everyone change into more formal wear.

He followed Harry to his room.

"I will let you celebrate for a while, after this, but I wanted to go over the task while it was fresh. Our next meeting is not until five days from now, so this is better."

"All right," Harry wanted to rest anyway. "I thought I did well, although I wish I had thought of my solution just a bit sooner. It was a little risky, but as far as I could see it was the best way to do it."

"It was definitely not as Gryffindor as Johnson's approach. What could you have done better?"

"Mmm… On the initial approach, I could have slowed down sooner. Maybe that would have allowed for a quick stop and go kind of approach. … No, I don't think so, the flying beasts were all over the place at the time."

"I think the it would have helped." Snape contradicted.

"But then it would have been me and Krum fighting, instead of him and Fleur."

"You might be right. I do think this shows how you are still not thinking fast enough. You were hovering around the fight for at least twenty minutes. A mind council would have been invaluable in that instance."

"I'm working on it, but you did say I needed to be cautious."

"I'll let you celebrate then."

That had been odd. Very little criticism from Snape. He was probably to happy that a Slytherin was taking the lead in the tournament, even if it was Potter.

Harry put on his finest robes, and joined the festivities. One of the prefects had organized an classical wizarding quintet, and House Slytherin waltzed around.


	13. A New Approach

**A New Approach**

"I have missed this." Harry said.

"It has been a while, hasn't it?" Hermione replied. "We haven't strategized since the first task. Or really spent any time together."

"What was the first task again? Dragons?"

"Har, har, all right I guessed wrong. Dragons _were _the logical choice, based on history. Who would have guessed Pixies!" Hermione pouted.

"Your right, even Moody was fooled." Harry tried to placate her. "And anyway, despite what Snape says, lack of strategy didn't really hinder me too much. I mean I am leading Tournament so far."

"You were lucky that the second task depended on flying. You are a natural with brooms."

"Hey, it was an honest competition, the other three can fly as well as I can."

"Anyway, you have not yet won a task outright. You are only in the lead, because you are the only one who has not completely messed up a task. Angelina didn't complete the first, and in the second Fleur and Krum dead locked each other, until they practically ran out of time."

"Which is why we need to know more about the final task. I need to win that one outright to win. Have you got any ideas about that?"

"The library has quite a few books on the third task. In the early day's the third task was mainly a three way duel, until one champion was left standing. This was the main cause for the high death count in those days. They changed that in the seventeenth century. Since then it has been mostly a race of sorts."

"Sounds like the second task."

"In a way. Usually the settings and the obstacles were the main difference, oh, and the scope. Since the invention of the wizarding wireless, it often takes a whole week."

"What? How can a race last a whole week?"

"It moves about the whole country. They would have way points in the different wizarding enclaves. That way more of the population can see it. And it is supposed to be more exiting. Like multi-day cricket matches, I suppose."

"Is it worth more points then?"

"The winner of the task is the winner of the tournament."

"What is the point of the other tasks then?" Harry frowned.

"The order in which you start is determined by your points. You should get quite a head start. Though, I don't know how they determine how much."

"A week long race through wizarding Britain. Okay, I can do this."

"They might just make you go through a maze." Hermione laughed.

"Any suggestions on how I should tackle this?"

"I think your training with Snape and Moody's handbook is the best preparation you can have. In a way it will be like the second task, where you will have to think on you feet a lot."

"So, you want to see where I am with that right now? Theo has been sparring with me every other morning." Harry got up.

He went through the spell chains that he had developed. Hermione was impressed with the fluidity of his casting, and that quit a few of his spells were silent. As in the fall, Hermione could not really help as an opponent, but she had an imaginative mind. Instead she helped him, by suggesting new combinations, new spells and different uses for the spells.

"Enough about me, how have you been?" Harry closed the practice session.

"Well, you know Ron and I are an item. Any time I have not been revising, I have spent with him. He can be a lot of fun, and he has a great family."

"I only know the twins. They are cool."

"They are funny sometimes, unless you are at the receiving end of their jokes. And they don't think at all about studies. They should look how Percy works. He is going places."

"Percy is rising quickly, that's true. Already Deputy-Director of International Magical Cooperation, just a year after Hogwarts. But is he really doing more then schmoozing up to Crouch? He hasn't done anything about Mafalda for example."

"Ron says that Percy has called in the Director of Magical Law Enforcement. Apparently he thinks Crouch is now missing as well."

"So when his cousin is missing, he does nothing, but as soon as his beloved boss is not there, he gets concerned? I think the twins are right bout him. He is a bloody careerist." Harry's temper rose.

"I'm sure he tried to help Mafalda. I mean, what have you done?" She tried to defend Percy.

Harry promptly pulled out the map he had made of the dungeons. "Here, I have been searching the dungeons for her. The twins are covering the castle, so between the three of us we will find her. Dumbledore said she has not left Hogwarts, so it is only a matter of time."

"You are only covering the Slytherin dorms? That doesn't seem like a fair distribution." Hermione scoffed.

"You are right, the twins should help me. The dungeons are far bigger then the castle. They go down and down for who knows how far."

Hermione grabbed the map and a fascinated expression spread over her face.

"What is the scale to this map? The tunnel network look enormous."

"It now takes me almost four hours of flying on my broom to reach the lowest levels I have explored. I can't go that fast, because of the dark, and the turns and all. I would say I'm going roughly twenty miles an hour. I don't know how far down it is, however, because it is three dimensional. But there are even more tunnels that go even lower from there."

"You were not kidding. The Slytherin dorms are huge. I always thought we had the best. Ravenclaw Tower is airy and light and has beautiful views. But this tunnel system is fascinating, with all these magic rooms." Apparently Hermione could make out Harry's chicken scratch writing. "Is this what I think it is?"

Hermione pointed at the pentagram. Everyone seemed to notice it.

"It is a room with a seventh category ritual circle. Why?"

Hermione looked at it intently. She mumbled to herself. Then she looked at him, "Could you meet me here tonight at eight? Also, think of a way to get me into the Dungeons unnoticed. I'll see you tonight."

And she disappeared from the room. Harry was non the wiser.

**HPU**

After Hermione had departed, Harry only remained a short time longer in the room. He finished his homework and headed back to his room.

He wondered what Hermione was up to. Her task for him was already solved. His fathers invisibility cloak would make it easy for Hermione to follow him unnoticed into, and past, the Slytherin common room. He only had to get it.

On the way a surprise awaited him.

"'Arry, 'ow are you?" Fleur greeted him.

He chuckled. "Since I am in the lead in the tournament, I am doing excellent."

"If Krum 'ad not been so idiotic, I would 'ave been faster." Fleur frowned. "Speaking of Krum. What do you zink of making an alliance. Togezer we could easily beat ze ozers."

"How would we decide the winner? Turn on each other."

"It would be a fair fight between us."

"I'll think about it. I'd rather win honestly, but it is intriguing."

"It is a thought. Bye 'Arry."

**HPU**

As Hermione had demanded, Harry met her at the appointed time.

Hermione was not alone when Harry entered. Her elf, Winky was with her. Both of them sat at one of the desks.

Harry smiled at the little creature. He had not seen her since she and Dobby began their relationship. She looked to be completely recovered from her time as an unbonded elf. She did seem a bit uncomfortable at sitting next to her mistress, but that was probably obeying a command in itself.

"Finally, you took long enough to get here." Hermione said in place of a greeting. Never mind that he had come five minutes early. "Take a look at this." She pointed at a page.

Harry took the page and shoved into Harry's face.

He took a glance and almost lost his mind.

"You want to do a ritual?"

"Yes, … they seem to work."

"But they are legal as … murder." He finished lamely.

"Yes, but they seem to work."

"But they need to be performed in the right places."

"Yes, but you found such a place in the Dungeons. We might es well take advantage of it.

"…."

"Also, how did you know that, if rituals are so illegal?" Hermione said.

"After I found the ritual chamber in my search for Mafalda, Theo told me a little about rituals. His family does some apparently." Harry admitted.

"Aha. You said it has seven circles? Then it is strong enough for what we need, this one only needs four. We'll have to find some essence of witchweed. We need some blood too, from a close family member of the one we are searching for. I think Ron will be fine with that."

"Okay, there are so many things wrong with this. First of all you want to ask Ron to give you some blood?"

"What do you mean, why would he not want to help find his cousin?"

"But this bloody, ritual magic can get you in big trouble."

"Tell that to Mafalda while she is waiting for someone to find her. The Ministry obviously doesn't care for her."

Who could argue against that.

"What precisely is your plan? What does this ritual do?"

"You remember how Winky here is bonded to me. Normally a head of a house, can order the elves of the house to search for members of the house. But this is only limited to members of the house. It is rather interesting, because this shows that, despite what the History of Magic textbook says, the head of a house has some authority even magically over his or her family and vassals. I wonder what that means for people like us, who are not part of a house. Anyway, this ritual allows me to … allows Winky to find Mafalda."

Harry took a closer look at the parchment. It lined out how to prepare the ritual room with the blood and the essence of witchweed. Then it described the ritual itself, how one had to light the candles and how to formulate the command to the elf.

"How did you even find this?"

"Since autumn, I have been searching about the origin of the elven-wizard bond. I wanted to find out how it was formed, hoping to find a way to reverse it and free them. I came across quite a few elven-wizard rituals. There are things for all sorts of occasions. Some are helpful, like one that makes the elf able to protect the offspring of the master more effectively. Others are downright diabolical. Punishment for the elf, that inflict as much pain as possible while guaranteeing that the elf survives.

"So far I have not found anything that would indicate how the bond developed, but a few I noted down for future reference. I knew this one could be helpful in the search for Mafalda, but I didn't know about the ritual chamber. So I had shelved it until this afternoon. When I saw that you had found that chamber, I immediately thought of this."

"All right, it's not like I didn't break curfew to search for her anyway. What is a banned ritual to that?" Harry said dryly. "What do we need to do to do this ritual?"

"We have to find witchweed, I think I should be able to get it this coming weekend in Hogsmeade. I will get the blood from Ron that same day. We don't need much. We should be able to do the ritual Saturday night." Harry wanted to ask how much Ron would know, but Hermione continued. "How far down is this seven-circle ritual chamber? I would like to take a look before we do it."

"It is is in the lower regions of the Dungeons. It will take about three hours, on a broom to get down there."

"I will have to sneak into the Dungeons and fly a broom. Flying is not particularly my strength." Hermione frowned.

"I can do the ritual with Dobby, and Theo can help. He has done some rituals with his family, that should help."

"You could, but I'd rather do it myself. My main reason is that, your bond with Dobby is strange. I don't want to experiment with these things quite yet. After all it is probably not wise to experiment with your first ritual." Hermione also had a gleam in her eyes. She was evidently fascinated by rituals, and really wanted to do this one.

"All right. I have this here," he pulled the invisibility cloak out, "to get you into the Dungeons. Are you sure you want to go now? It will be a six hour trip, not counting any time in the room. We would barely get any sleep tonight."

"You are right. This means we won't have time to check the room out before." She chewed her lower lip. "It should be okay. I mean what could we really do by scouting it out? We will just go there in the evening of Saturday. Then we can sleep in on Sunday."

"Maybe we should bring Theo along. He has some experience."

"You talk to him. I don't rally know him."

They departed for the night. Harry had a spring in his step. Finally they had a promising plan.

_**A.N. I'm sorry, this is both short and late, what can I say, sometimes writing is hard.**_


	14. Hermione and Her Elf

**Hermione and Her Elf**

"If you had told me I'd go to Hogsmeade in the company of a Muggle-born and a Weasley just two months ago I would have called you crazy, but you know what, this has been a great time." Theo was glowing a bit from the fifth butterbeer he just consumed. "I just hope my father does not hear about this."

"I never imagined I would enjoy my time with two Slytherins either." Ron replied. "And yet, this time this has been the best Hogsmeade weekend in a while."

"You only say that, because you were able to beat Theo in that giant chess set in the park." Harry said.

"Don't remind me. I will have to renew my chess practice in order to defend house honor. This is not over Weasley." Theo said.

"It was not only my glorious victory." Ron defended himself. "What made today fun was that the only time, I was bored was when we waited for Hermione to get her ingredients at 'Dogweed and Deathcap.' Did you really not get enough potion ingredients for the year?"

"It's not for school, it's for a little project of mine, and it was only five minutes!" Hermione reprimanded her boyfriend. "Where else would I get witchweed?"

"Don't talk about this too loudly. We are not alone, you know." Theo looked around nervously.

And indeed just then Angelina Johnson approached their table. "Mr. Potter, could I take up some of your time? I have a business proposal to make to you. Could we step outside for a moment?"

"I would be delighted, Champion Johnson." Harry got up. The two of them left the other three behind in the Three Broomsticks. As they left he heard Ron wonder why their project was so secretive. Interesting, it looked like Hermione hadn't shared their plans with her boyfriend.

"So what is it?" Harry said once they were outside.

"We are both British, we are both proud students of Hogwarts. Should we not make an agreement that ensures that our Queen can be proud of her magical …"

"Enough of that, you want us to take out the other two champions and duke it out between us? I already got this proposal form Fleur. It's interesting I guess. But why would I pick her over you?"

"I already said that. We are both from Hogwarts. Don't you want to make sure that we win?"

"How would you winning be a win for me? Anyway, I'll answer the same: I'll think about it. But don't get your hopes up. Fleur is at least a friend."

"All right. That is all I had." Johnson looked a little deflated. Had she really hoped for more just because they went to the same school?

**HPU**

A little later, the four decided to walk back to Hogwarts. Ron and Theo walked ahead, talking excitedly about Quidditch. It was astounding what this sport could do to unite people.

Harry and Hermione straggled a little behind. Hermione happily chatted about her favorite subject, Ancient Runes. As always she tried to convince Harry to switch from Divination to Runes. "And I finally have a new reason that you should consider taking Ancient Runes next year! Ancient Runes is essential to understand what happens in rituals!"

"Hermione, about that, I researched about ritual magic this past week, and what I found is not good. Any and all ritual magic makes you a dark wizard. You know what that means? We will qualify as dark wizards after this. Are you not at the least concerned about that?"

Hermione was silent for a moment. "I read that too. Honestly, at first I was concerned, but then I remembered how messed up the Ministry is. Just because they classify something as dark does not actually mean it is. I would compare rituals to nuclear power. Just because nuclear weapons are horrendously destructive, and should never be used, it doesn't mean that nuclear power is evil. It is true that most rituals mentioned in the library are very destructive in some way. Some example require human sacrifice. Other unleash plagues. But that does not mean we can't come up with beneficial ones."

"I see, kind of like the cutting curse. It can be used to cook or to kill." Harry mulled it over. If they wanted to do more rituals in the future, they would have to do it in secret, but he was definitely intrigued. But then another question arose: "What about Ron. Did you convince him?"

"I didn't tell him anything. He is from a light pureblood family. In a way they are just as brainwashed as the bigoted purebloods. There is no way I could convince him to help in a ritual. I actually just took some of his blood while we were practicing for DADA. I hit him with a stunner and woke him after that."

"Hermione this is revealing an entirely new side to you." Harry smirked. But then got serious again. "Are you sure you are in a good relationship though? I mean stealing blood doesn't exactly speak of a good foundation."

"That is none of your business."

"Just saying."

**HPU**

The three of them went straight to the same abandoned class room that Harry and Hermione usually use to prepare.

"Harry do you have everything? I mean the candles and your cloak?" Hermione said.

"I said so, didn't I? Where is your broom? If we walk, it could take us until two to get there."

"I don't have a broom. I didn't realize I needed one." Hermione was even more nervous.

Harry and Theo exchanged a glance.

"You are the better flier, mate." Theo said. "I'm not on the Quidditch team."

"Fine." Harry sighed. He turned to Hermione. "It's all right, you'll have to sit behind me. Just make sure you hold on tightly."

"That means we are finally ready?" Theo had been ready to go half an hour ago.

"Let me…" Hermione began.

"Yes." Harry cut Hermione short. They had checked their equipment and supplies three times already. They had everything, but the brooms. They had left those in Harry's room. It would be too conspicuous to walk around with brooms. They knew what they were doing after all. They had been down there plenty of time. Harry more then Theo, thanks to the holidays, but they were well aware what they needed. "I think when we get to the door to the Dungeons, it would be best if you stay behind us. Here is my invisibility cloak. That way you can sneak in unseen after us. Stay under the cloak until we tell you the coast is clear. We are going to go down quite a way's. You'll see. Any more questions? … okay, lets go."

**HPU**

The three had no problem getting past the common room. It was still only five o'clock, and most students only now were leaving Hogsmeade. Thus the common room was almost deserted, apart from a few second years.

Harry and Theo strode confidently to Harry's room. He could not tell how Hermione was fairing, but he had an inkling he would soon find out.

And indeed as soon as they had closed the door behind them, she spoke up: "Wow, just what I have seen is bigger then the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor towers combined. Do all of you have single rooms?"

"No, only Harry and the prefects have that privilege. I have to share with Malfoy and his goons. Harry gets one because he is a Triwizard Champion. How do you know how big Gryffindor tower is?" Theo said.

"I have seen the common room, Ron lets me in sometimes. and the rest you can extrapolate from the outside, since it is a tower. I don't know how big the Hufflepuff dorms are, but I think yours are the biggest, by far, if the tunnels are really as extensive as that map suggests."

Harry got his broom. Everything else was in their bags. He checked the outside. No one was around. He gestured them to follow. Harry and Theo got onto their brooms. Hermione said nothing when she got onto the broom behind Harry. They lifted off the floor and took off.

**HPU**

It took them a little under three hours to get to the room. It was not so bad as Harry had thought. He had expected that having the wrong balance on the broom, due to an extra passenger, would cause a big hassle. But it was not bad for two reasons. For one, the broom manufacturers had added a few spells for precisely this occasion, that Harry had not know about until then. Also, having Hermione press herself on to him was not at all a bad sensation.

Now they were finally in the ritual room and real business could begin.

As before, when Harry stepped into the room, his wizarding light first flickered and then extinguished. He felt the magic of the room again. It was a strange place. Even though he knew that rituals were classified as dark magic, he somehow felt at home here. Hermione tried to cast a lumos, but this also did not work.

"No wand magic will work in here," Theo informed them, from the tunnel, where his wand still glowed, "it's a property of all higher level ritual rooms."

"I just wanted to check." Hermione muttered.

Harry smiled and stepped outside the room again. He propped the door, which opened outwards, with a few rocks that lay on the ground of the tunnel. Then he lit his wizarding light again, and positioned it outside the door, pointing in. It was not the brightest solution, but it did provide some light.

The floor was hard rock and perfectly flat. The circles and the pentagram were black rock which stood out from the light gray of the rest of the chamber.

Hermione pulled out a few candles and lit them. They would help her in drawing the runes. They had brought black sand for that job. Theo had said that usually sand of the appropriate color was kept in a bucket by the room, to be reused as needed. Many rituals required either animal or human blood, but enough needed simple sand that this practice made sense. Harry was glad that this ritual didn't need blood, as this would have been much harder to obtain. They had brought their own just to be sure, but that proved unnecessary. There was a big barrel of black sand just to the left of the door.

Hermione pulled out a parchment, and started drawing runes on the floor. Theo helped her, as he was decent in runes. Apart from a quick comment by Hermione they remained in silence. Hermione had commented on Ancient Runes again: "See, if you were in Ancient Runes you could be helpful here."

Harry smirked. Depending how this worked he might actually reconsider.

But even without his help the runes were drawn quickly. There were only twenty runes between the two of them, so in five minutes they were done with that. While they did that Harry emptied the bag of sand into the tunnel. 'No need to carry that up again,' Harry thought to himself.

Theo stepped next to Harry, "Now we are just spectators, huh."

"Looks like it." Harry answered.

Hermione read once more through her notes. She was just quadruple checking, Harry was sure. There was no way she hadn't memorized all the steps.

Then she lit five candles and placed them at the tips of the pentagram. While she walked around the pentagram she was of course careful to not disturb the runes drawn out of sand.

Then she returned to the center of the pentagram. She lit a sixth candle and burned the witchweed in its flame.

She took a breath of the smoke, suppressed a cough, and then called out: "Winky, your mistress calls!"

Winky instantly popped in front of Hermione. The elf stood on her two feet, but bowed sow low that her ears almost hung to the floor. Harry could not understand how she did not topple over, she bowed so low. "Winky be ready to please mistress."

"My good elf, your house calls in dire need. A most cherished ally of our friend is lost. An ally of a friend of our house is our ally. Therefor I have this most grave task for you. Are you willing?"

Harry wondered how much leeway Hermione had in the command. He really wanted to learn about rituals now.

"Winky be more then willing." She had still not moved.

"Then I task you to not rest until you have found Mafalda Weasley. By this blood," Hermione lifted a flask filled with red liquid, "I prove to Magic that this order is valid." Suddenly Winky stood upright, her face lifted upright, her mouth wide open. Hermione uncorked the flask and poured its content, a few drops, into the open mouth. Harry cringed. Hermione remained stone faced. After the last drop, Winky was instantly back in the bowing position. The feeling of the presence of magic intensified.

"By this blood," Hermione now held a knife in her hand. She slit her hand and squeezed a few drops of blood out and onto the center of the ritual circle, "I vow that this charge is a righteous one, one that honors our friends and allies." Now the presence of magic bordered on being overwhelming. The mysterious force moved the sand on the floor as if it was a strong wind, but Harry could not feel any wind.

Then the candles extinguished on their own.

"Go now, my good elf, do not rest until you can show me were young Mafalda Weasley is located."

With a pop the elf disappeared. Hermione let out a breath. Her face showed that she was not entirely pleased with the ritual. She frowned.

"That seemed to have gone well. I think you did splendid in your first ritual." Theo congratulated her. "Now we can only hope that Weasley is all right."

Hermione answered with a small smile and nodded. "Lets clean up and go back. I'm suddenly very tired." She swayed a little as she said this.

"Come here, you are still bleeding." Harry led her out of the room and performed a quick healing spell.

Clean up was very quick. There was a broom and a little shovel with the barrel of sand, so they put that back. They wiped off Hermione's blood, and in a few minutes the room looked as if nothing had happened.

Harry called Dobby for some food. They ate their sandwiches in silence. Hermione's exhausted silence kept Harry and Theo quiet.

On the broom ride up, Hermione fell asleep holding tight to Harry. He hated having to wake her up when they reached his room. Theo disappeared to his own dorm, and Harry guided Hermione out of the Dungeons with the invisibility cloak.

**HPU**

In the days following the ritual, Harry was both more relaxed and more nervous then usual. He was more relaxed because he felt like he could give himself a break on the hunt for Mafalda. He felt more agitated, because he was anxious to see if Winky could find Mafalda. It also finally dawned on him that they might well only find Mafalda's corps.

Even Snape noticed that something was off during their Monday Legilimency lesson.

This state of tension was only broken once, when Krum approached him after lunch on Tuesday.

Harry almost laughed when the Eastern European offered an alliance for the final task. He politely asked for some time to consider. He really needed to figure out what to do about these three offers. But at the moment he could not focus on the tournament.

Then finally on Thursday, relief came.

Just after Herbology, Hermione pulled him aside, "Harry, Winky found Mafalda. When can we enter the Dungeons again?"

"Can't you just command her to pop you to Mafalda?"

"Humans can not apparate inside Hogwarts. How many times do I have to tell people that? Elves can't change that, and that includes side along apparition."

"Ok, so how do we find Mafalda now?"

"We can meet in your room as soon as possible, and then Winky can lead us there."

"Okay, when is your last class?"

"Runes comes out at five fifteen."

"Meet me in front of the Dungeons at five twenty. We have no time to waste."

_**A.N. What can I say. I'm sorry, I don't think I will make predictions how soon I will post, ever again. Unless the next chapter is already written. This one took some time. I can say the next one is half done. Who knows what that actually means. Reviews are nevertheless appreciated! What did you think of the ritual?**_


	15. Mafalda's Story

**Mafalda's Story**

At five twenty one, the Harry and Hermione met again. Hermione again followed Harry into the Dungeon with the invisibility cloak, it almost seemed like routine by now.

Harry had caught Theo during the day and told him to meet them by his room. He had said, he might be a bit late. And indeed, he was not by the room when they arrived. As soon as Harry closed the door, Hermione took of the cloak. She was ecstatic.

"It worked, Harry it worked! You can't believe how hard it was, all day I had to keep quiet. But our first ritual worked!" Hermione was practically shouting.

Harry had to smile. He had never seen Hermione so jubilant. The usually quite reserved girl was almost bubbling in excitement. "Great job Hermione. I'm glad it didn't blow up in our faces. And I'm really happy we are about to find Mafalda. But where is Theo? We need to get going. I bet Mafalda really wants to get out of wherever she is."

"Relax. Mafalda has been there for months. It is better we do this right, and find her, rather then mess up and have her stuck down there. Is there anything we need to prepare?" Hermione's planing nature surfaced again.

"I think we have everything. But I did want to ask you, because we might not have time later to explain how you are involved. How do you want to handle that?"

"You are right. I can't be seen in the Dungeons. I will have to take along your invisibility cloak in case. Other than that I'm not sure we can do much."

A knock from the door distracted them. It was Theo. The trio grabbed their bags, and the two boys grabbed their brooms. They would not be flying downwards, since they had to follow the elf, but it might help on the way up.

With Harry's lamp still unlit, they made their way. Hermione called Winky, who led the way. Hermione was close behind her elf, and the two Slytherins followed as a rear guard.

**HPU**

"Slythy Weasel is being in here." Winky stopped them. There was a little alcove, filled with a statue, it was the one that they thought was Slytherin. If Winky had not stopped them, they would have missed the door that was discretely placed in the shade of the statue. Harry was very surprised that they had only walked for half an hour.

He had spent so much time getting to the lower dungeons. He supposed it was not a waste, since they had needed the ritual circle that he found, but he still felt a bit dumb. He had spent weeks down there, and now she was so close to the surface. It made some sense, however, as the kidnapper had to be able to reasonably reach his victim.

"_Alohomora." _Theo tried the unlock spell.

Nothing happened.

"Lets try this the Muggle way. On three, push with your shoulder…" Theo thought out loud.

"Are you a wizard? Step behind me." Harry said, as he stepped back ten feet.

Hermione and Theo scrambled to get behind him, looking puzzled.

"_Bombarda"_

The door exploded inwardly. The door frame was cracked, and some smoke briefly blocked their vision.

"Sweet Merlin, that was powerful. How did you know that one? We haven't covered it in class." Theo said.

"You know, I have been training for the Tournament. Snape is much better in defense than …" Harry halted, as the smoke cleared, they caught what was inside the room.

Before them floated a scared, naked, little girl.

The smoke cleared some more.

Mafalda.

She was suspended about two feet above the ground in which a ritual circle was engraved. The ritual circle faintly glowed in a dark blue. Her once Weasley-red hair was also glowing in that same blue.

Her now darker blue eyes glowed wide at them. "Harry!"

Mafalda's arms and legs weakly moved around. She appeared to try to get to them, but was held in place. A wide pot below her was filled with a blue fluid.

"Careful Mafalda, we'll get you." Harry tried to calm her down, and approached her, but he stopped before the glowing runes of the ritual circle. He did not know what it would do, if he crossed into the circle. Harry looked closer at the runes. There was hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.

"This runic array is orders of magnitudes beyond what we did." Hermione mumbled besides him. She was evidently engrossed by the ritual circle.

Theo meanwhile examined the room. The room was very dusty in the corners, but along one long wall, a shiny clean potions table was placed. Various small cauldrons simmered and blubbered over flames. Some of them also glowed in the same dark blue.

"Maybe Snape can tell us what they are doing over here." He muttered as he walked along it. He turned to face Harry. "I'll go and get Snape, you two should stay with Weasley, try to…" Various noises of disgust came out of his mouth.

"What is wrong?" Harry walked around the circle to examine what Theo saw. When he saw Mafalda's back he understood.

There was a hole in her back.

Her spine was exposed.

A roughly triangular hole exposed her spine and the backside of the organs that are housed inside the rip cage. The back muscles that should have been there was entirely missing. The rough triangle on her back was parallel to her shoulders on top. The two long sides meet half way down her back. It was not really a triangle, for that entails straight lines. The borders of the hole where more arbitrary than that. A faint pink glow was gleaming from the exposed flesh. Her hair fell over her right shoulder, so nothing fell inside this hole.

Harry felt nauseous. He had to use his Occlumency shields to prevent himself from panicking.

"Go Theo, get Snape, and Dumbledore! Go! Hurry!"

Theo jogged out the room and grabbed his broom. He took of, he would be in the common room in a mater of minutes.

"Harry, what is happening, what is back there?" Hermione said as she refocused away from the runes.

"Yes, what do you see?" Mafalda asked.

"You don't feel anything? … How don't you feel anything? … There is a big hole in your back."

In that moment, the Headmaster and Winky appeared with a pop. As soon as they had materialized, Winky let go of the Headmaster and popped away again.

"Ah, Miss Weasley. I am delighted to see you again."

Non of the students in the chamber knew how to respond to that statement.

The Headmaster turned to Hermione, "Now Miss Granger, I believe this section of the Dungeon is not technically open to students of the other houses. If you would be so kind as to don Mr. Potter's marvelous cloak, we can all pretend that we did not see the brightest witch of her age blatantly break multiple very serious rules. I'm sure Professor Snape and Mr. Nott are going to be down here very soon."

Hermione looked aghast, and mutely pulled out the cloak they had brought for precisely this reason.

"How did you come here, so fast?" Harry asked.

"An old wizard keeps his tricks to himself. The more important question is why is Miss Weasley floating in this room? Could you shed some light on this, my dear?"

"No, with all due respect Headmaster, you could not use those tricks to find her? You failed her. You can't just shush a good question. How did you find us so quickly after you did not find Mafalda for months?" Hermione's now disembodied voice demanded.

The old man shook his head with a sad frown. He looked at the cluster of runes and pointed at several spots within the runic array. "My bag of tricks was not enough to break through this."

"You mean to say that the ritual not only makes Mafalda bleed, but also hides her from all detection?" Harry could clearly hear Hermione's attraction to rituals in her voice. It was amazing how quickly runes and rituals distracted her from anything. He hoped the Headmaster did not notice it.

"Most rituals have such features, especially the darker ones. You must know that rituals are … discouraged by the Ministry, and if they detect one, they will search for the offending wizard." Dumbledore's eyes seemed to smile serenely at the direction of the voice.

"Should we not try to get her … back on the ground, so to speak, sir?" Harry tried to change the topic. He did not want the Headmaster to notice how fascinated Hermione was about rituals. He wondered how much Dumbledore was guessing.

"When I was young I would have certainly thought so. But since then I have learned better. Blood harvesting rituals are not to be trifled with. Better leave that to the experts. Professor Snape is getting them from St. Mungo's as we speak."

"What are blood harvesting rituals, Professor? What can the blood be used for?" Hermione's disembodied voice brought the conversation back to rituals. Harry had to use his Occlumency to prevent himself from groaning. Did Hermione have to make it that obvious?

The Headmaster did not seem to notice: "A virgin witches blood and indeed most blood can be used for powerful potions. They are usually very potent. Effects can range from relieving you of some minor aches to cures of cancer to increasing your magical potential. There are even some reanimating spells that require blood potions."

"How about Mafalda tells us how she got here?" Harry tried again to change the direction of the discussion.

"I have wondered this myself." Professor Dumbledore said with his customary glazed eyes.

They turned to the floating witch.

**HPU**

… _We were celebrating _your selection as Slytherins champion. And stayed up a little later then usual. Isolde and I went to our room, but when we were in our beds, Rosetta Phillips and Arlene Wolfe were still talking and making noise, so we stayed up with them. We talked forever in the dark. But at some point, one by one, the others drifted off to sleep.

I could not sleep. So, at some point I decided to see if there was still something going on in the common room.

I sneaked out and passed the bathrooms, so I was maybe halfway to the common room when a tall, blond guy stopped me:

"Hey peanut, your still up?" He came closer and looked closer at me, "Your red hair, are you the Weasley girl that just got sorted into Slytherin?"

"Yes, … I'm Mafalda."

"Call me Arthur." He smiled, "so you can't sleep? If you want you can join some of my friends? We are having a good time down in the lower Dungeon. I'm sure you would fit in."

"… Not really, I got to go." He behaved odd. No one of the upper years had noticed me except to tease me, so I turned around and tried to run back to my dorm room.

I did not get three steps away.

"_Stupefy._"

**HPU**

I awoke in here, tied up with ropes, right next to the door. There were two wizards in the room. Both were dressed in black robes, and wore masks.

One stood by the potions table. He was fairly tall, but had a lankiness to him that reminded me of a lot of the boys in school. Like he had just recently shot up in height, and had yet to fill in properly. His face was hidden behind a simple white mask. He was working on several cauldrons at the same time. On the table, was a cauldron and a mess of potions and potions ingredients. I could not make out anything I knew.

In the center of the room, another wizard was drawing runes in blood on the floor. The blood was probably from chickens, since there was a pile of them next to me. This one looked like he could be the young guy who had stunned me. He wore more elaborate robes. His mask was silver, and it was very detailed.

The two men worked on their tasks for an undetermined time. I was very thirsty but too scared to say anything.

Eventually the silver masked wizard stood up and stretched. He went to the sink by the potions table and washed his blood-red hands. Meanwhile the other wizard took another look at the runes on the floor.

After the two were satisfied they unbound me, and gave me a disgusting potion to drink. It didn't even help my thirst, but made me feel very light headed. I almost felt like I floated off the floor.

I must have become lighter, because the taller wizard moved me with one arm to the center of the runes.

I sort of numbly stood there, while the two took positions before and behind me. They began to sing a kind of haunting, sad melody. The words were in a language unknown to me. After a few lines, the one in front of me picked up five candles and walked slowly around the circle, placing them in round spots that were without runes. His singing changed to a counter melody while he lit the candles, but returned to the main melody after he returned to his starting spot.

Their song went on for several more minutes, and then abruptly stopped. The wizard behind me shouted something intelligible, and then cut a triangle onto the skin of my back. He did not cut deep, but the burning sensation of the knife overtook any other sensation.

Then I let out a sharp breath as the wizard ripped off the triangular segment of skin.

Tears were silently coming down my face as they tossed the piece of skin into a flat pot.

They poured out a slave and spread it on my back. I don't know what it did, but my back felt like it cooled of quickly and then went numb.

While my back stopped aching, the two were singing again. I really started floating now. It felt weird. I felt weightless, my legs just dangled below me. As they were singing, one placed the pot with the triangle of skin below me. They continued to sing, I felt a few drops of liquid go down my back.

I looked down, and I saw a few blue drops. They floated into the pot. Now that the pain had receded to numbness, I noticed that the runes below me had changed. They used to be red, but now they were glowing in the same blue.

At this point, the two finished their song. They looked very tired, and they went and got some food out of bags. As they were eating, I longed to eat as well, but I did not think they would give me anything. After they ate, they went to the potions workbench again.

"The potion looks good. Then again I wouldn't know if it was wrong. Potions was always my weakest subject," said the silver masked wizard.

"And you better remember that. This would not work without me. Without my potions knowledge and inside access, you could never help our Lord with this crazy plan of yours. This potion is perfect. The Mudblood looks to be ready too." The smaller wizard said as he turned towards me and approached me.

"Don't worry, if all goes well, I'll recommend you to Junior. You'll get your silver mask in no time."

The white masked wizard nodded, and poured the violet potion into my mouth. It tasted even worse then the one before, but my stomach ached a little less after I swallowed it.

After that the two departed. The days just merge into a kind of blur.

The light turned on and of as if it followed the sun, but I don't know if it really followed the sun outside or if it was random. I had no way to tell how much time had passed. The taller wizard never returned, but the wizard with the white mask visited often. When he would come here, he would always first empty the bowl into a cauldron. Then he would give me more of the potion. He would usually be here for quite some time, since he would brew this blue potion, and more of the potion that he would give me to drink.

**HPU**

"I was scared for a while, but at some point I just became bored. My back itched in the beginning, but then it never bothered me. There was not much to do, so I always tried to talk with my captor, but he would only answer in grunts."

"Well, now we found you." Harry tried to reassure her, "as soon as Professor Snape is here we will get you out of here."

Dumbledore meanwhile wandered around the chamber. He had his ever present, doting smile plastered on his face. Harry wondered what the centenarian thought of all this.

They did not wait long for Snape, just a few minutes after Mafalda's story ended, the potions professor entered the room, with two white robed witches and one white robed wizard.

The medical team did not pause to ask any questions. They must have been briefed on the way here. They spread out, around the circle, and started casting various diagnostic spells. They were muttering strange words at each other. Such as 'sanguine,' 'cardiovascular,' 'rachis,' and 'neo-Gubine ritual.' Then a heated discussion ensured of which Harry did not understand a thing. It concluded with them chanting some spell that made Mafalda fall asleep.

The wizard turned around and pulled what looked like a match box out of a pocket. He placed it on the floor and tapped it with his wand. It rapidly expanded and revealed itself to be a medical cabinet stuffed to the brim with potions, salves and medical instruments. He and one of the witches opened it and pulled scores of potions out of it.

The other witch turned to the Headmaster. "If you would be so kind as to leave us. The procedures we will have to go through will require our upmost attention, and you would only distract us. We will bring Mafalda to the infirmary as soon as possible."

Thus Harry, Theo and an invisible Hermione were ushered out together with the Headmaster and the Slytherin head of house.

Snape stayed behind, outside the chamber, by the statue. He would wait for the team of healers.

Professor Dumbledore meanwhile guided the three students first to Harry's room. There he told them it was late, and to go to bed. He promised that he or Professor Snape would talk to them in the morning. He took Hermione with him, to bring her to Ravenclaw Tower.

_**A.N. I know **__**parts of this **__**was kind of gruesome. **__**Do you think it was t**__**oo **__**G**__**raphic? **__**Skin being ripped from the back of a little girl… **__**The inspiration for the hole in Mafalda's back is from a picture on deviantart. It is called Cursed by z-**__**ed. **__**I'm also curious of what people think about the chapter in general. Does it reveal enough, does it make sense to you? **__**Even pointing out spelling errors are helpful. Recently I learned I misspelled sighed consistently. Anyway… **_

_**Happy First of August, the Swiss national holiday!**_


	16. Cause for Fear

**Cause for Fear**

Harry and Hermione arrived at the door to the hospital wing almost at the same time. Hermione smiled at Harry as he caught up to her at the door.

They had succeeded, each had played their part, and now finally Mafalda was free again.

Or rather, as free as her open back would allow her to be.

When the two entered the main room of the infirmary they looked for her in one of the beds, but they could not find her at first. They looked behind each drawn curtain, but apart from a patient suffering from a normal Quidditch accident, no one was there.

"If you could not disturb my patients, I would highly appreciate it." The voice of Madam Pomfrey reminded them. The motherly witch Harry knew too well, came from a previously unnoticed door. "You two got permission to see Miss Weasley. She is in here. Come in, but don't get her exited."

The mediwitch stepped aside and let them enter.

The two stepped into a small room. It was furbished like the regular bedsides in the main infirmary. But the single bed it contained had been altered. It didn't have a regular mattress, but one made so that the patient could more comfortably lay face down for extended periods of time. The mattress was at an angle, and was shaped so that the hands could go down in front of the patient.

In it lay Mafalda. Her back was still exposed, but whatever the healers had done had at least stopped the constant trickle of blood.

When she saw Harry and Hermione, her face instantly lit up.

"Harry, you made it. I was not sure if they would let you in." Her head turned towards Hermione, "Who are you? I mean I saw you in my prison cell, but I don't think I have met you."

"I'm Hermione, from Ravenclaw, same year as Harry."

"What she is not telling you is that she was the one who discovered a way to find you. If not for Hermione, you would still be bleeding in that chamber." Harry said.

"Blunt as always, Potter." Snape walked into the room. "I was looking for you." He disregarded that the three had been talking.

"Professor, should we go to your office?" Harry asked.

Snape hesitated for a moment. "I suppose, it will be acceptable to discuss this with Miss Weasley and Miss Granger present. It largely concerns Miss Weasley and Miss Granger is already involved in any case, and I'm afraid you will discuss this with her later anyway."

He conjured a comfortable looking chair for himself and sat down. He looked at the three students in front of him. "After Professor Dumbledore led you back to your rooms, I waited outside the room, until the healers had treated Miss Weasley. If the kidnapper returned, I wanted to be ready."

"What about now, he still could come back?" Hermione interjected.

"Professor Vector is standing guard right now, and we will rotate for a couple days, to make sure that he does not sneak back. But based on what I found in the room, I don't think he will come back. We examined the potions laboratory in which you were held, Miss Weasley. The examination of unfinished potions can be very tricky, especially if the main ingredient is so potent as blood.

"But even given this limitation, we are fairly sure we know two of the potions that they made. One is the pleasure potion that has been plaguing our school for the last year. Whoever is behind this probably made a pile of galleons from the sale of this substance, both here at Hogwarts and throughout Wizarding Britain. A contact with the Aurors, told me Knockturn Alley is currently flooded with this stuff."

"I wonder how they were able to smuggle it out of Hogwarts?" Mafalda asked.

"If an adult was part of this, it would not have been difficult. Due to the Triwizard Tournament, there are constantly outsiders in the school, this year." Hermione said.

"There are plenty of ways that a student could sneak out as well, a student could have done that as well." Harry smirked, remembering past adventures.

"I don't think we will get much information, but we should be able to limit the number of suspects at least somewhat. Regardless, if we had only found this pleasure potion, that would be bad enough really, but there were also hints that the Death Eater had been brewing another even more dangerous potion. There were tools and traces of a substance mostly known as 'the blue blood elixir.' It is a potion that can be used as a basis for almost anything. But most critically, it is an essential ingredient many very dark rituals."

"What sort of rituals can it be used for?" Hermione's eyes lit up.

"I am afraid I don't personally know too many, but the Headmaster shared with me that it can be used to fashion a new body."

"Who would need that?" Mafalda looked confused.

"Many people would want a new, young, healthy body." Snape scowled. "But what troubles us most is the possibility that the Death Eaters behind this want to revive their master."

"My cousins said 'You-Know-Who' was killed by Harry" Mafalda's face showed terror.

"His demise has been exaggerated. His body was never found." Snape said.

"I fought him in my first and second year. Both times he tried to regain a body." Harry explained.

"You never told me about these?" Hermione was confused.

"We were not very close at the time…" Harry tried to explain.

"Those events are why came to you." Snape explained, "you have a tendency to get in the way of the Dark Lord. I want you to be very careful. We don't want the third time to be the charm, for him."

"Constant vigilance, sir." Harry tried to remind himself.

"There is another concern why I wanted to talk to you. There were only traces of the blue elixir. Many of the traces seem to indicate that they were hastily removed. As if they knew you would find the room soon." Snape said.

"Yes, the Death Eater came in and rushed around only an hour or two before you found me." Mafalda confirmed.

"Who could have known about it?" Snape asked.

"Only Harry, Theo and I knew what we were doing, Professor." Hermione said with a startled face.

"Well, Ron Weasley was around sometimes, I think." Harry said, "we did not share anything with him, but he might have overheard something."

"It might be just a coincidence." Snape frowned, "but you need to be more careful, if Weasley could have heard it, who knows who else could have heard it."

"We were more concerned about finding Mafalda!" Hermione tried to explain.

"There is no help in crying over spilled milk, Miss Granger, just learn from this. Be more careful next time." The potions professor rose and vanished his seat. "I have to go, but just would like to remind Champion Potter, that you have your last task starting Monday. Be sure you get enough sleep before then. Good day"

With that Snape left the room.

Harry did not quite know what to make of all he had heard. He looked at Mafalda's exposed back. Who would do this sort of thing to another human?

He looked intently around the edge of the gaping hole. When looking at it carefully one could see improvements. The healers had written, maybe tattooed, countless runes. The effect of all the magic involved was a hovering, transparent shield. It protected the open wound. There was also a hint of blue skin around the edge of the wound. If it worked as it should the wound would slowly close.

His train of thought drifted. He was in wonder of this application of runic magic. It was so diverse.

Hermione was right. He really should learn runes, they were a hole additional field of magic that could be useful. Even if they never did another ritual. Which was bloody unlikely, with Hermione's fascination of them.

But before that came the end of the Triwizard Tournament!

**HPU**

"Mr. Potter, may I have a word with you, please?" Harry was surprised to be addressed by Percy Weasley, just as he was getting out of the Dungeons. He must have waited for him.

"Mr. Weasley, how can I help you?"

"I just have some questions, it should only take a minute. I have been investigating the disappearance of my boss, and your discovery of Mafalda makes me ask some questions."

Harry grunted noncommittally.

"You see, I wonder if there is a connection between Mafalda's disappearance, and Director Crouch's disappearance. If so, then Mafalda's imprisonment within Hogwarts itself gives us some clues. The biggest one is that there had to be someone inside to have regular access to her."

"Of course there had to be someone on the inside. But beyond the fact that both have been missing do you have any evidence that they were kidnapped by the same people? I mean for all we know, maybe Crouch eloped. There is a big difference between a first year who is almost a Muggle born and a high ministry employee." Harry said.

"I would say that two disappearances in such a short time frame have a high probability of being connected. Regardless, I rally just wanted to talk to you about Alastor Moody. He strikes me as very suspicious. But before I tell you of my thoughts, I want to hear what you have to say. I don't want to influence your initial impression of him. What do you know about him?"

"Moody, well, he knew, or rather suspected before Halloween that I would be part of the Triwizard Tournament. He helped me train until I had to pick only one professor to help me with my preparations. After that he still tried to help me as much as he could. Apart from that all I know is that he is a very blunt teacher."

"Blunt is one way to describe the unforgivables. But anyway, how did he know that you would be part of the tournament? That is very suspect." Percy said.

"He just said that I have a tendency to be part of dangerous adventures, and that I better begin to prepare for them before they happen. And from that he concluded that I would most likely be part of the tournament, since that is the most adventurous thing happening this year." Harry explained.

"Seems on the surface like a good explanation, but that doesn't mean anything. Here is what I have. He is the only mayor staff change this year. He has shown a willingness to use unforgivables, that is a clear sign of a dark wizard. I don't think we can rule out the Slytherin upper years, but an adult seems more likely."

"But from all that I have heard, he was a hero of the last Wizarding war. And he was really helpful with defense. Why would he help me if he was a death eater?"

"People change Mr. Potter. Moody was a hero, but that is a decade ago. And I looked at his records. Let's just say that his retirement was not entirely what he wanted. As far as Moody helping you, I think it makes perfect sense to get on the good side of the boy-who-lived. Especially if he is one of the Champions."

"I still think that the Death Eaters behind Mafalda's kidnapping had some connection to Slytherin. How else would they have known about the chamber."

"You are well informed, Mr. Potter. I don't have an answer to that at the moment. All I am trying to tell you is that I would be careful around Mr. Moody." Percy Weasley left in a hurry.

**HPU**

_Dear fellow champion, _

_I was asked to consider a coalition with each of you. I am honored for your offer of assistance. I would highly prize friendship with each of you, outside of the Triwizard Tournament. This has made me wonder how that is best applied to the last task. I do not want to show favoritism to one of you. I furthermore don't think it would be helpful for our friendship if one of us had to break this coalition by surprise in the end. There can only be one winner after all._

_Given these problems, I have to decline your generous offers. I will, however, offer each of you a truce of sorts. I promise to refrain from any hostile action, unless you first attack or ambush me. I hope to all see you at the finish line._

_May the best win, _

_Harry Potter, Champion of the House of Slytherin_

Harry looked at his letter. Yes, it would do. It was solemn enough for a champion.

He copied it twice with a quick spell, placed them into envelopes, and labeled them. Then he gave it to Hedwig to deliver them. She was one of the best post owls, who was able to deliver multiple letters at once, provided they were not too far from each other. This was luckily not the case.

**HPU**

Inside the Headmasters office were Harry and the other three champions, the three Headmasters, Percy Weasley and Director Bagman.

"Thank you for coming, I hope you champions brought what we asked you to bring, and only what we asked you to bring." Ludo Bagman looked around, as sternly as he could.

"This is very important. We want to have an even playing field, so, Headmasters, if you would check your respective Champions. They are only allowed their wands, appropriate clothing and good shoes, and if they want a Swiss army knife." Deputy-Director Weasley was far more successful with his stern face. "Just to make sure that we are all on the same page, we will floo to the cliffs of Dover. There the Minister himself will give a quick speech. After that you will race back to Hogwarts. Since this is over 450 miles, and we want this to take about a week, we have broken this into three sections. Between each section, you will be transported by Ministry officials. You will have to…"

"Lets not forget the spectators," Director Bagman chimed in, "There will be opportunities throughout the race for witches and wizards to cheer you on. The ministry will move stands to exiting areas. Furthermore the Wizarding Wireless Network will follow you closely and report on you throughout the day. All of Wizarding Britain will follow you."

"Yes, yes, as I was saying, you will have to follow a rough course, which will be warded against apparition. There will be stretches in which there will be traps or magical flora and fauna that should give you trouble. You will have to run from way point to way point. At each way point, you will have to mark your presence with the ring you obtained in the first task. This will also alert us to you progress. You may also find some surprise there. After each daily segment you will be required to rest eight hours at the rest stops, unless it is a transfer stop, then you will have ten hours. At each stop you will be provided with a very substantial dinner, but breakfast and lunch are your own responsibility. You will have to find food in the field. Any questions?"

"What about the start? Do we just go all at once?" Johnson asked.

"Oh, yes, we will start in order of points. Each point is worth five minutes of time. Mr. Potter will go first, twenty five minutes later, Miss Delacour will start. Twenty minutes later Miss Johnson, and five minutes after that Mr. Krum. This sounds like a lot of time, but since the race will last five days, it should only give a slight edge."

As no one had any more questions after that, they stepped through the Floo.

Harry tumbled out of a mobile floo connection. Around him were two stands, filled with roughly fifteen hundred people.

Harry tuned out the speech of the Minister as he was wont to do.

Then it was time, he was going first.

The crowd cheered, he jogged away. Soon the stands and the people disappeared behind him.

_**A.N. Two more chapters after this! Do you see any plot holes? I got an anonymous review stating that they think this fic should be rated 'M.' Is that a more widespread opinion? **_


	17. The Third Task

**The Third Task**

Harry passed the sixteenth way point. As before, he had to stop a moment. There was a short pole with four boxes staked on top of it. Harry was happy to see that they were all still untouched. This meant that he was on the lead again. He made a fist with his right hand and placed it onto the top box. The boxes would be opened in the order that the contestants found this way point. The box flashed, and now had a label on it with his name on it. Below the label there was a small clump of wax. When he placed his fist on it, the ring he was wearing, connected with the wax. Another short burst of green light confirmed that everything was going fine. He withdrew his hand, and confirmed that the seal now was imprinted into the wax. He opened the box and took out the muggle Mars bar that was in it.

Harry consumed the candy ravenously. He had not been able to catch anything so far, so this was his breakfast today. Maybe the sugar in the Mars bar would help him catch something eatable.

With a grunt he soldiered on.

**HPU**

Two hours later he had finally caught a rabbit. He lit a little fire and roasted it.

As he was cooking, Fleur found him. In the last three days a truce of sorts had been established. Following his lead, the other three Champions were refraining from attacking each other. The traps and beasts that were liberally distributed throughout the race course was enough hazard for them. Harry was skeptical that it would last on the last day of the race, but he trusted Fleur to at least give a warning. With the other two he was not so sure.

The four frequently passed each other, as one or the other paused. They needed to hunt, cook and sometimes just take a breather. Harry jogged as much as he could, but this was a long distance race, and he did not want to exhaust himself during the first couple of days. Harry planed to keep with the pack for the first three and a half days, and then push himself as much as he could for the last bit.

And so Harry did not object when Fleur sat down next to him and started preparing the fish she had caught.

They had covered a respectable distance today, they were getting close to Stonehenge. They knew that their next public stop would be at the famous site. Fleur smiled at Harry. They had a companionable silence between them. After the exertion of the race, it felt good to rest for a moment.

Their rest was interrupted by loud cries for help.

A young woman appeared on the hill besides them.

It was Angelina. The Gryffindor witch was bloodied and clearly exhausted. She appeared to be on the verge of collapsing.

"Help me. Krum is crazy," she shouted as soon as she saw them.

A few steps behind her, Krum followed, in a similar state.

Harry's training from the year kicked in, and his first response was to throw a stunner at the crazed Quidditch professional.

Krum ducked out of the way. His honed reflexes helping him.

Fleur went for the attack as well, and now peppered Krum with various spells.

Krum was no match for Harry and Fleur working in sink. He was grunting and retreating behind a tree. Harry's attention was fully on him.

Thus, he did not notice a wizard sneak up behind them.

"_Stupefy." _He heard from behind him, and then he knew no more.

**HPU**

"_Ennervate!_"

Harry awoke with a startled jolt.

For a moment he cursed himself. Where was that CONSTANT VIGILANCE he had been warned about all year. Then he got annoyed. This was not the time to get distracted. He needed to find out what he could do to get out of this situation.

He looked around himself. In all directions, the country was the same rolling hills that they had seen the last day or so. There was little vegetation besides grass.

Harry was tied to the biggest rock that he could see. Besides him he could see the other three champions. Bound as he was, to the same rock. Before them, the there were two Death eaters. One of them had a silver mask on, while the other had a golden one.

He noticed that the ground was very even, even though it was at the bottom of a small vale. The field in front of him had been stripped of any grass. Over a dozen small red rocks, about the size of a soccer ball, had been placed in a big circle. The big, weathered rock was part of that circle. Centered around the big rock were several other old rocks, but they were not a part of the circle of new, red rocks as the big, old rock. It must be the site of an old stone circle.

On the ground countless runes had been drawn. They were made of some blue substance, and Harry had the distinct impression that this was what Mafalda had been kidnapped for. The runes were drawn in various strange shapes and forms, but concentrated around a oval depression at the center of the circle. The depression was filled with a pond of the blue liquid.

"All right, we have wasted enough time. Lets begin." The Death Eater with the golden mask said.

The two wizards took position opposite the big stone that the four champions were tied to. In their left hand they each held another bucket of the blue substance. They enchanted together, _"Veniet Dominus Voldemort, servi tui vocationem."_

Then the two made their way to different stones. At each they again proclaimed the incantation, while at the same time sprinkling some of the blue substance on it. Each of the stones began to glow bright red. As they made their way around the circle, they charged each stone and got closer and closer to the old, big stone.

As more and more of the stones lit up, a gray mist formed over the blue pool in the middle of the circle. At first it almost looked like regular fog, but as more red stones lit, it became darker. Until it was almost black. When Harry looked closely, he noticed that the blue substance of the pool slowly disappeared. It looked to him as if it rose from the pool, to form the mist.

Once the two meet at the final, largest stone, the two repeated their incantation nine times, and then dumped the remainder over both the large rock and the four Triwizard Champions.

Out of the clear, blue sky, lightning hit the black fog in its center. The bright light momentarily blinded Harry. When he could again see, a gruesome, if familiar face formed out of the mist.

The full head had formed during the lightning strike, but more of the neck slowly formed out of the mist.

"It is time," the high pitched voice of the Dark Lord resounded over the ritual circle, "bring to me the worthy sacrifices, that I may walk among the living again."

Both of the Death Eaters had dropped to their knees. There was, however, a marked difference in their bearing. The silver masked one was cowering face down, trying to look as small as possible. The golden masked one, while on his knees, looked straight at Voldemort, with no fear betrayed by his bearing. "Who do you want to harvest first, my Lord." he asked.

"Potter is last, I want him to see the others suffer. Other than that I do not care."

Both Death Eaters jumped up, and hastily untied Krum.

The Quidditch star was still numb from the ropes, and fell onto the ground. The two wizards lifted him up by his arms, and dragged him to the center pond. There they tossed him into the blue liquid.

As soon as he touched the liquid, he cried out in agony. He weakly attempted to get out of the pond, but was unable to do so. All his strengths and magic seemed to be drained from him. Krum was just barely able to keep his head out of the liquid, and there was not much liquid left.

As Krum fought, the dark cloud condensed more, and the upper torso and beginnings of arms were added more rapidly to the Dark Lord.

"I can handle two at the time, add another to the pool." Voldemort commanded.

Johnson had to endure the same procedure. She was roughly carried to the pond. And quickly there were two in the blue elixir, fighting weakly for their lives, as Voldemort's materialization accelerated even more. Within seconds, he had fully formed arms.

At the moment that Johnson hit the central pond, a figure appeared up the hill, across the crest.

Moody! Harry instantly realized.

The grizzled veteran Auror charged down the hillside. His peg leg did not appear to hinder him in the least.

As he approached the ritual circle, he began to throw various, very dark curses at the Death Eaters and the dark cloud. Harry was surprised to see a killing curse dissipate into nothing as it came into contact with the circle.

This was a high enough ritual site, that some forms of magic could not penetrate, and this apparently even included the infamous _Avada__ K__e__davra._ To Harry this was just another confirmation of how powerful rituals were. No wonder Hermione was enthralled with them.

Meanwhile, Moody had reached the circle, and began to manually move one of the red glowing stones. His hands must have begun to burn, because he grunted and stepped back, and began to push with his peg leg.

He had not moved it much, but evidently enough to disturb the ritual. The dark cloud began to blow around, and parts of the legs of Voldemort began to dissipate again.

The two Death Eaters were not idle either.

The silver masked Death Eater stepped forward and began to grapple with Moody. Moody was clearly a better brawler, and the Death Eater was almost instantly on his back. He was good enough, however to keep Moody occupied.

The other, golden masked Death Eater reacted much more strategically.

He ripped out a long blade, and quickly, but calmly went to the big rock, where Harry and Fleur were still tied down. The ritual was collapsing and so he grabbed Fleur, who was closer. He cut her loose and dragged her to a position on the ritual circle, where the runes formed a crescent moon shape, with the open side facing the inside of the circle.

Upon his arrival, he enchanted: "_Quia Dominus meus."_ And plunged the knife into Fleur's sternum.

When the knife impacted her chest, the runes around them intensified in their glow. Fleur also began to glow in bright red. Almost instantaneously she turned into a red cloud, which was drawn towards Voldemort and whirled around him like a tornado.

The magic of the ritual was so overbearing that even Moody and his Death Eater opponent stopped their fight.

Multiple lightning strikes hit Voldemort.

When Harry could again see, he saw total devastation had been wreaked on the ritual circle. All the red rune stones had vanished. As had the remaining blue liquid in the center depression. The ground had a burned look to it that covered any surviving runes. All evidence of ritual had disappeared. The burned look and the ash was evidence, that something had occurred there, but there was no indication as to what had happened in the burned grass area.

Nevertheless, something had definitely happened.

In the center, a very nude Voldemort floated above the shivering Johnson and Krum. He looked pleased at his new body.

For a moment all wizards present were in shock, and the only sound that could be heard were Johnson and Krum's heavy breathing. They lay in the pit shivering. Harry was not sure that they were really present mentally. They looked like they would pass out any moment.

"Oh crap." said Moody.

He again began to punch the silver masked wizard into the kidneys.

The other Death Eater was now free to act and drew out his wand. To everyone's surprise, he was able to cast.

Moody reacted instinctively. He rolled out of the way, and the olive green curse flew over both him and the silver masked wizard. As he rolled he drew his wand and began to fling curses at both Death Eaters. The golden masked wizard quickly parried, and jumped away from what could not be parried.

The silver masked one was not quick enough. He was still recovering from the physical fight. The green glow of the killing curse connected with him. He did not breath again.

"Dad!" the remaining Death Eater loudly cried, and redoubled his effort against Moody.

Voldemort now also actively entered the fight. This put Moody instantly on the defensive. He was the best Auror of the past century, but he was past his prime, and he was not truly a match to the newly reincarnated Dark Lord. The best he could do, was to survive.

Harry's eyes meanwhile were drawn to what was left of his friend.

Fleur's shining white bones stood out from the ash around it.

She was gone.

Harry's inside iced up. He had not made many friends in his time at Hogwarts. It was bizarre that he had become a friend with Fleur, a French vela, in such short time. It was not right that she was now white bones. She was so young. She had not even graduated.

Harry released his feelings in the only way he knew: "_Glaci__o!"_

The spell connected with the Death Eater who killed his friend. He was momentarily frozen. In the time that it took Voldemort to counter the spell, Moody landed a _bombarda_ at his feet. He was out cold.

Harry fought as he had never fought before. There was no hesitation, no doubt in his movements. Determination and focus even his best practice spars had lacked. His spell chains came out effortlessly, the timing was flawless. He never ceased to move and thus reserved his spells to the offensive. He practically exclusively used borderline dark spells. He continuously cast for however long the fight lasted. He surprised himself. Harry was consumed by ice cold fire.

It barely made the Dark Lord take a step back, before he redoubled his attack, and stepped forward again.

Even Harry and Moody combined were no match to the Dark Lord. All that the two of them threw at him, Voldemort swatted away like flies. Worse, he didn't just deflect them, he redirected the spells at the other opponent.

Harry's sole mistake in the battle happened when Voldemort did precisely that. He redirected a bone breaker cast by Moody directly at Harry. Harry was unable to doge in time, and was not in position to block the spell.

Knowing that this spell only affected the area around the impact, he stretched his left arm to block it.

It hurt like hell.

But Harry knew what to do. He pulled his Occlumency shields, and blocked out the pain. His left arm now dangled uselessly from its shoulder, but he was alive.

He redoubled his efforts.

Despite Harry's injury, Moody smirked at this point.

Whatever it was, Voldemort must have sensed it too. With four steps he resolutely reached the still alive Death Eater. He grabbed him with his left, and apparated away silently.

Moments later a lone redhead showed up at the top of the crest. As he came closer Harry could identify him as Percy Weasley.

Moody only stood still for a moment and then promptly went to Harry. He ignored the approaching Weasley and focused on casting first aid charms at Harry's left arm.

As he was giving first aid, Moody began to talk: "You did real good, kid. I can count the people who fought you-know-who and lived on one hand. Now that 'You-Know-Who' left, the Ministry will try to explain what happened, and they will possibly try to hush up his return. They will most likely think that they can handle the situation better, if their knowledge of his return is not known widespread. To cover this up they will need a target, and I will be the most logical choice. So I don't have much time. Heard you are learning Legilimency. I bet you are good at it. Your mother was. I have a book that will help you with it. Ask Snape to let you into my room. I just keyed you into the second compartment from the top of my trunk. There are five books on the right end of the compartment. Do not take any of them, except of the one on Legilimency. You will still be cursed if you remove the other four. But the one on Legilimency should help you." Moody paused his casting. "Wow Potter, after all this you don't show any magical exhaustion. You are physically tired, but magically you are as fresh as dew." He resumed casting, focusing on his hand now.

As Moody was still casting, Weasley reached the devastated stone circle. He looked around and cried in surprise at the scene. He saw the bones of Fleur, but could not identify them. He saw Krum and Johnson, now passed out in a hollow in the center of an ancient stone circle. He saw a dead masked figure, possibly a Death Eater, and Moody and Harry.

He looked around quickly and then apparated away.

Minutes later, with a loud pop, he reappeared with two Aurors, and quickly disappeared again.

The two Aurors looked around. One of them directed the other: "McInivan check that body." Then he addressed Moody, "Moody could you …"

"Dawlish, I thing you should take a look at this."

The Auror had removed the silver mask. It revealed the face of the missing Director of International Magical Cooperation. He continued moving his wand, "He died from the killing curse."

"This is getting above our pay-grade. McInivan." He said, as he glanced at the three surviving Triwizard Champions.

"It's good Bones is coming." McInivan replied.

A pop announced the presence of Percy Weasley again, this time with the authoritative presence of Madam Bones. The third person with them was a toad-like witch in pink cardigans.

"Dawlish, status report." Bones said.

"Nothing has changed since we came. Here is Director Crouch. His face was covered with a silver Death Eater mask. He died of an AK."

"Have you checked all wands present? What about these bodies?"

McInivan finally checked the two unconscious Champions. "These two are still alive. Their magic is drained."

"What are you standing around for. Get some healers."

As McInivan apparated away, Dawlish turned to Moody. "Sorry Moody, standard procedure." Dawlish held his hand out, not looking sad at all.

Moody tonelessly handed his wand. Dawlish cast _Prior Incanta__to_on it. It was no surprise that it showed the _A__v__a__d__a K__eda__vras _that Moody had cast.

"I have to arrest you for use of an unforgivable, Moody, please don't make this harder then it should be."

"You know I have license to use those, and you should really first get an understanding of what happened before you arrest me."

"And you know that no matter what, we have to arrest any likely AK caster …"

"Moody don't make this harder then it is, you only have the authority to use the Imperio for educational purposes, not the other two." Madam Bones interrupted the retired Auror. "Don't make this difficult or we will have to add resistance to lawful arrest to the charges."

"Madam Bones, Professor Moody only killed the Death Eater in self-defense. We …" Harry said, but was interrupted by the arrival of McInivan and two white robed witches. The Auror directed them to the two unconscious Triwizard Champions. They quickly checked Harry as well, but diagnosed that Moody had done enough for the moment. After telling him that he needed to go to Madam Pomfrey by the end of the day, they focused on the far more severely injured Johnson and Krum.

"Hrm, hrm." the pink clad witch directed the attention away from the healers doing their work. "We have not yet established that he truly was a Death Eater. For all we know, the mask could have been placed on his face after he was killed."

"We do know he was a Death Eater, because he fought for Voldemort." Harry said. All but Moody shuddered at the name.

"'You-Know-Who' was killed over ten years ago. You specifically should know this." The toad-like witch retorted.

"This Death Eater had a golden masked one," several of the wizards and witches present raised their eyebrows, at Harry's statement, "performed a very powerful ritual, that took Fleur's life, and brought Voldemort back."

"The boy speaks the truth," Moody broke his silence.

"Madam Umbridge, we never found his body." Madam Bones stated. "Maybe we should call the Unspeakables. I can't detect anything of this ritual, but they have their ways."

"You can't be taking him seriously." Dawlish said.

"I think, we should cover all possible angles. 'You-Know-Who' was … or is … the most powerful dark lord since Grindelwald. We cannot just dismiss the possibility that he had an ace up his sleeve. At least not with two witnesses stating that they have seen him." Madam Bones sighed "I guess, I will have to speak to the Unspeakables."

"If this is a real danger, then I must insist on secrecy oaths. The Minister will have to decide how to handle this. We don't want the possibility of a mass panic, and it might be strategically beneficial in letting the dark lord believe we are not looking for him." Harry was surprised at the authority behind Madam Umbridge's words. Even the head of Magical Law Enforcement did not object. He wondered who this Madam Umbridge was.

One by one they all swore the required oath. It restricted them from speaking of the day's events to individuals who already knew of 'the possibility of the Dark Lords return.'

It seemed like a convoluted oath, and Moody rolled his eyes as he made it. Harry wondered if he could find a way to tell at least Hermione.

Once this was done, Madam Bones turned to Harry. "I better bring you back to Hogwarts. Poppy will want to look you over. We don't want you to get a bad arm from all of this."

"Before you go Amelia, I would like to commend Mr. Weasley over there." Moody held her up. "He was able to track me when I went of to find Harry. I am not an easy pray to follow. He might be a good acquisition for your department."

Percy Weasley turned red at the praise.

"Good to know." She eyed Weasley with interest. "I will certainly keep an eye on him. How were you able to follow Moody?"

"I was able to calculate his apparition destination, based on the common traces, and then just followed the noise." Weasley was now bright red as a lobster.

"I am certain that I am among the best in covering apparition traces." Moody said. "Don't down play your skill, lad, and you'll go far."

Bones smiled, "You know, with the death of your boss, you might be out of a job. Talk to me if that is the case." Then she frowned. "Moody, how did you know where to find Mr. Potter?"

"Oh, I had a tracker on him since the beginning of the third task. When I lost him due to the ritual, I followed where I had last located him, and then just followed the tracks."

Dawlish smirked. "Another thing to add to your list of charges."

"We will see what we will do about that. It seems to have helped us a great deal." Madam Umbridge said.

With that Harry was apparated away by Madam Bones. She quickly delivered him to Hogwarts infirmary.

_**A.N. **__**Voldemort is back! I hope you like the variation of both the task and Voldemort's method of returning.**_

_**Longest **__**Chapter**__** to date, **__**first one to pass 4k**__**! Just one more chapter **__**for Harry's fourth year**__**, that will hopefully explain any possible questions. **__**It might take a while **__**though**__**. **_


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